


On Leave

by Reads_Things



Series: At Least They Have Each Other [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blowjobs, Confessions, Gabriel is only a softie when it comes to Jack, Gabriel thinks he's fashionable, Light Angst, M/M, Pre-SEP, Romance, Rough Sex, They're Very Happy Together, did I say slightly, fluff abound, mentions of child abuse, mentions of noncon, mostly happy, numerous side characters, slightly cheesy, some self-confidence issues, your real family is the one you pick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:13:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 59,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22285408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reads_Things/pseuds/Reads_Things
Summary: Gabriel and Jack are offered a place in SEP, and they accept. With a month off before the program begins, they decide to show each other their respective hometowns. Things get rough, but they learn a lot about each other in the process and become even closer than before. Jack's childhood didn't quite match his sunny disposition, and Gabriel reveals a few demons of his own from the past. Even so, the positive experiences far outweigh the negatives.
Relationships: Reaper | Gabriel Reyes/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison
Series: At Least They Have Each Other [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604134
Comments: 55
Kudos: 115





	1. Indiana, where Gabriel learns that Jack hid quite a bit from him.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [W4nderingStar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/W4nderingStar/gifts).



> So I stopped paying attention to Overwatch lore around the time of the genesis of Hammond. IDK if they actually met at SEP or not, but in my kinda timeline they met before at the UN's Anti-terrorism unit. So. Yeah. Anyways I don't have a beta reader, so I apologize for any mistakes. Cheers.  
> Also, thanks to W4nderingStar for being an inspiration to us all. Or me at least; don't wanna speak for others. But probably to us all.

“Gabe, look!”

 _Fuck. What now?_ He blinked his eyes open, pushed back a yawn and sat up straight. At his side, Jack’s torso twisted to look out of the train window.

“Was it worth waking me up?” He turned to look, unable to stop the second yawn.

Jack raised an eyebrow at him, typical bright smile in place. “You tell me.”

“It’s… corn.” Gabriel squinted, trying to catch an image as the train flashed through the fields. Going a couple hundred miles an hour, details were hard to make out. The sky was that scarily deep blue, with no clouds, mountains, or buildings in sight to break it up and make it seem real. Besides the sky, there was corn. Just corn. Fields of the stuff stretched in very direction, and when he turned back to gaze out the opposite window, he saw nothing but the same. Monotony.

Jack elbowed him in the side. “Yeah, and you know what that means?”

“We’re fed another day.”

At least it got a laugh. 

“We’re almost there! Just another couple hours.”

“ _Hours_?”

“Hey.” Jack winked. “I told you I lived in the middle of fucking nowhere. I wasn’t kidding.”

Gabriel snorted, not even dignifying him with a response, and slouched to close his eyes again. They’d been on the train for close to eleven hours at that point; cross-country. It was more comfortable than military transport, but then, it was also considerably slower.

He couldn’t help but take a peek after a few minutes, opening one eye and turning his head slightly. Jack’s smile was in pretty stark contrast to the glucose abyss into which he gazed.

Of course, Jack smiled at a lot of things for reasons Gabriel didn’t understand. Like Gabriel himself. 

He straightened again after another hour, unable to get back to sleep. _At least he isn’t glued to the window anymore._

Jack, who had been fiddling with his phone, glanced up and smiled at him. “Get any rest?”

“No.”

“You can use your hoodie as a pillow, you know.”

“I’m not taking it off.”

“Edgelord.” Jack muttered.

“Want to run that one by me again?”

Despite himself, Gabriel felt the corner of his mouth start to lift. 

This was nice. He liked his job —was damn good at it, too— but finally getting some time off for just the two of them was incredible. He hated having to share, and Jack had too many friends in the squad.

Across from them, an elderly man glanced up from his portable gaming device.

“You boys military?”

Gabriel folded his arms, feeling the dull clank as the tags brushed across his chest. “Yeah. What of it?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to intrude.” The man said. “I’m just curious. My daughter is in the military. What do you two do?”

Jack elbowed Gabriel again, shooting him the usual _why do you have to be so rude_ look.

“It’s fine.” Jack said. “We’re in the ATU; The UN’s Anti-Terrorism Unit. They send us off to handle major attacks, usually in Europe and North America.

The old man nodded. “I presume there aren’t any nearby now?”

“Nah.” Jack grinned, ran a hand through his perfect golden hair. “Just some time off."

"And you're taking it here? It'd better be for a reason as good as mine." The old man fumbled in his pocket, pulled out a photograph and leaned across the aisle to hand it over. “Just coming to finally move in with my wife. It took a lot of work, since… well.”

Jack took it, moved it so Gabriel could see.

A humanoid omnic, one wearing a red-flowered hat and a sundress. 

_Ah. I can see how that causes issues._

Jack handed the photograph back. The old man relaxed after seeing that they didn’t begin a verbal or physical assault. 

“Congratulations!” Jack said, just as the train mentioned something about their stop coming up. Earlier than expected, but Gabriel wasn’t about to complain.

“You boys have a good time, then.” The old man said as they gathered their things.

The train started up again almost the instant they stepped off, and it was out of sight in less than a minute.

“Hey, Jack.”

Jack turned, pack on his back and excitement plain on his face. “Yeah?”

“There’s nothing here.”

And it was true. There was a tired green metal-and-glass structure just big enough for a few people to stand under, a bit of concrete around that, and then… corn.

Oh. And a worn, admirably wide packed-dirt path leading through said hellscape. 

“Don’t worry.” Jack said. “We walk a couple miles, get on a bus for another hour or two, then walk another few miles to my parents’ farmhouse.”

“You have to be fucking kidding me. Why didn’t you mention this before?”

Jack shrugged, something devilish flickering in his eyes. “You’d bitch at me like you are now.”

“Careful. There’s nobody around in a hundred miles. Nobody would hear you scream.” Gabriel warned.

Jack began to walk backwards down the dirt path, eyebrow raised and tone mockingly sultry. “Is that a threat, or a _promise_?”

With a heavy sigh, Gabriel began to trudge after. "You'll find out."

It wasn’t actually that bad, he had to admit. The late summer weather was nice, they had no obligations, and they were alone. The bus was vacant, and as most vehicles were, automated. They didn’t see another soul for the next couple of hours, and it didn’t change when they finally stepped down off the bus to see another dirt road.

“It’s not far now.” Jack promised.

“Thank fuck. Please, you have electricity right? Running water? Plu-“

“Gabe! It’s not the 00’s anymore. I promise there’s every modern amenity. Well. We don’t have good television. My parents don’t care for it.”

“Why would they?” Gabriel said under his breath as they began the last leg of their journey-- for a while.

They were both quiet for some time, Jack with a skip in his step and Gabriel with lead in his.

He’d offered to go to Indiana before LA; spend a week and a half at each, then fuck off to wherever they were sent next. Jack had been excited to show him where he’d grown up, corn and everything. Something about the land being great or whatever. 

It was beginning to feel like a shitty teen romance movie. 

_Or maybe a horror movie._ He glanced around at the corn. It was all considerably taller than him, and thick as hell. It made him feel slightly on-edge at all times, especially when he considered they had no real cover. At least he had his pistol ready in its holster.

He continued to trudge, and Jack continued to beam.

“Real excited to see the family then, huh?” Gabriel finally asked.

Jack’s smile faded, the light leaving his eyes just a little. “Um, yeah. I guess.”

 _This is different._ “You guess?”

Gaberiel hadn’t heard Jack talk much about his family. There was the occasional offhand mention, but otherwise nothing. In fact, now that he thought about it, the only time he’d heard Jack mention his father was when some people in the squad had heard about Jack’s real name.

Many months prior

Stationed Military Base: Common Area

He glanced up from his phone as he felt somebody flop next to him, taking up the other half of the couch.

“Hey, Gabriel!”

He nodded back at Jack, not bothering with words. Jack didn’t seem to mind. He never did.

Across from them, a couple of their squadmates just finished a game of chess. A few others had been watching, and now began to chat about the match.

“Oh, hey Jack!” Daniels grinned, sat back in his chair. He’d lost the match, but only by the skin of his teeth.

The winner, Remman, stretched in his seat. “You know what I heard?”

Daniels began to reset the board for new players, as was custom for the loser. “Whassat?”

“I heard that Jack’s real name isn’t Jack. It’s John.”

Beside Gabriel, Jack froze.

“It’s called a nickname, idiot.” Daniels said.

Remman scoffed. “Yeah, but it ain’t even on his tags. The commander introduced him as Jack. You’ve been holding out on us, eh?”

The last question was directed at Jack, who gave an uneasy smile. “Yeah. I go by Jack. Nobody calls me John. Do I look like a fucking John to you?”

Remman rolled his eyes. “I don’t look like a Greg. Doesn’t matter. Parents named me.”

Daniels gave an offhand shrug. “You seem like a Greg to me.”

“Thanks.” Remman said, voice edging into sarcasm. He stood and gave his chair to the next player. “But why so into this secrecy, _John_?”

Jack’s brow furrowed. “It’s not a secret; I just don’t like it. Don’t call me that.”

“Why? Oh, you’re from fuck-all nowhere, right. Named after your dad or something, John?”

“I said _drop it_.” Jack snapped. 

Daniels shot Gabriel a surprised glance. 

He was just as surprised. Jack didn’t really lose his temper– certainly not over something as banal as this.

“Not really surprising.” Remman joked. The man was good at chess, but truly an idiot. “I hear a lot of rubes have daddy–"

Remman squawked as Jack’s fist caught him directly on the nose, sending a spatter of blood across his face and him stumbling. The chess set clattered down hard, sending carefully arranged pieces flying as the table and Remman both tumbled to the ground.

"Call me John one more time." Jack suggested icily. He was gone before anybody could process it.

Everyone, even Gabriel, sat stunned for a moment.

He’d known that John was on the birth certificate, but not much else besides the fact that nobody called him that. Jack getting this worked up about _anything_ wasn’t exactly… common. Over this?

Well. Not that Gabriel was one to talk, when it came to getting worked up over nicknames.

Gabriel stood, left just as the Captain was walking in to yell about the noise and mess.

He found Jack cooling down on the roof, where he always went when he was upset. Or bored. Or had any excuse to head up.

“Hey, Jackie. You good?”

Jack shrugged, refusing to turn and face him. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“I’m not the one you knocked clear to hell. Not that the bitch didn’t deserve it.”

Jack gave a noncommittal hum. “I may have gone overboard. It’s just a name.”

Gabriel reached over and patted Jack on the shoulder. “Names are important. And hey, you're not the only one with a name complex. The last person who called me _Gabe_ got their ass kicked."

“I guess.” Jack sighed. Finally turned. “I dunno. Guy’s always been a prick though. Today was just the day.”

“Kinda jealous you did it first.” Gabriel checked his watch. “Wanna go grab some food from mess in a couple minutes? It’s almost lunch.”

“Sure.”

Present

Fuck. He never had gotten to punch Remman himself.

“Hey, Gabe? You’re zoning out.”

“Oh. Sorry. What’d you say?”

“I said I missed the land.”

Gabe focused back in. Jack was obstinately refusing to look at him, instead gazing into the corn.

“It’s alright, I guess.” He managed after a minute.

Jack shot him a glance. “You haven’t even seen it yet!”

“Is it different?”

Jack sighed. “Near the center of farmsteads. We have an orchard, some fields for livestock, a patch of forested land, a garden, and yeah… more corn.”

“Right. Livestock. You talk about cows a lot.”

Jack’s smile reappeared. “They’re so sweet!”

“I dunno. Don’t they like, try to maul you?”

“More people have tried to maul me than cows. Don’t get between a cow and its calf, and don’t fuck with bulls. You’ll be fine otherwise.”

“You’re a soldier. Your mauling ratios are off.” Gabriel squinted. Was that a fence in the distance? A break in the endless corn supply?

“Who’s the expert here?” Jack complained. “Anyways, we’re almost to the edge of a livestock field.”

“Great. Twelve more miles to your house, then?”

Jack winked. “About one.”

They continued walking.

“Gabe?”

“Yeah?”

Jack took another while before speaking again. “Thanks. For coming out here with me. It’s actually really great when you avoid the people. Its beautiful, and… well. You’ll see. It’s fun.”

“‘Course.” He said, fighting back a smile as Jack leaned in to kiss his cheek.

“I- oh!” Jack cut himself off and began to sprint down the road, getting over the livestock fence in a smooth one-handed leap and continuing.

Gabriel watched with mounting concern, stopping by the fence as Jack approached a small herd of fuzzy brown cows. They didn't look like the black-and-white mottled ones he’d always envisioned. _Were those really just cartoons?_

A cow broke off from the herd and approached cautiously at first, then sped up. He thought it was about to ram into Jack, but it slowed at the last second and butted him in the chest instead.

_What the fuck._

He watched, concern fading into confusion and disbelief as Jack proceeded to hug and subsequently pet the cow. _Cow_.

Eventually, Jack headed back towards the fence and to Gabriel, the cow trotting behind like some oversized loyal pet.

“Gabe!” Jack gestured. “Come on!”

Gabriel eyed the cow. “I dunno.”

“Oh come _on._ It’s perfectly safe, I promise.”

After another minute of coaxing, Gabriel hopped the fence. He kept a damn close eye on the cow, though.

“This is Annabelle; my favorite girl! We grew up together.” Jack said, rubbing under the cow’s ear. “She’s the best.”

“How do you even tell them apart? They all look the same.” Gabriel said, keeping his distance.

“You get to know them, and anyways, you saw how she recognized me! They’re really very smart. And sweet. They’re basically big playful dogs. Come pet her! She’ll love you.”

“I’ll pass, thanks.” Gabriel said, edging away as Jack and the Cow approached.

“Come on, Gabe! She’s sweet. I promise.”

“You’re making a lot of promises.” He muttered. 

He didn’t struggle, much, as Jack ducked behind him and took gentle hold of his arm, guiding his hand towards the cow.

Annabelle was soft, and Gabriel _didn’t_ jump when she moved her head up to nose at him.

It wasn’t a flinch. It was… an aborted sneeze. 

Yeah.

“See?” Jack said into his ear, voice low. “She likes you.”

Gabriel retracted his arm as soon as Jack released him. “Sure. If you say so, cow whisperer. Wait, how old is this fuckin’ cow?”

“Let’s see. She was born when I was about five… probably about seventeen years old. She’s getting up there, but she should have a few years left in her. She was the first cow I ever helped with the birth. Before that I only helped with pigs and such.”

“Wait, what? You were five and helping with…?”

Jack laughed. “Yeah. That’s normal out here, don’t worry.”

“Ugh.” Gabriel made a face.

They began to walk along the fence towards, presumably, the farmhouse. Annabelle walked alongside them, Jack’s hand resting on her back. 

As much as Gabriel hated to admit, it kind of did act like a big weird dog.

A couple of minutes later, they approached a tree that had grown somewhat into the fence. Its twenty-foot trunk and twisting branches dwarfed everything in the surrounding landscape, casting a heavy shadow on the grass beneath it.

“Wanna take a break?” Jack asked, staring up into the branches

Gabriel followed his gaze, caught sight of some apples above them.

“Apple tree? Is this the orchard?”

Jack gave him a dirty look, the barest hint of a smile in place. “No. That’s on the other side of the house. This one’s just for shade and snacks.”

“Sure. They’re pretty high up, though.”

Jack rolled his eyes. By the time Gabriel blinked, Jack was fifteen feet up in the tree and plucking an apple from a branch.

So. That’s where Jack had learned his ridiculously good climbing skills. They’d come into handy during missions for certain.

Gabriel caught one apple, then another eight that followed.

“ _Hungry_?” He asked. Jack flopped down, rested his back against the tree and patted the ground beside him expectantly.

Gabriel complied. Jack immediately moved to press their sides together, polishing an apple on his shirt.

“Here.”

Gabriel took it. Bit into it.

It was sweet, and crunchy, and nothing like store-bought. He hated how good it was. 

“Thanks.” He realized he should say.

Jack hummed.

Gabriel watched with growing horror and vague amusement as Annabelle somehow maneuvered to lay her massive body down, resting her head on Jack’s lap.

“What the fuck?” Gabriel said.

“I told you. Big dog.” Jack joked. He picked up one of the excess apples, slid a knife from his belt, flicked it open, and carved off a chunk of apple flesh. He handed it to Gabriel.

“Feed it to her.”

“Jack. There’s not a chance in hell my hand is going near that mouth.”

“Geez, she’s not a goddamn carnivore, Gabe.”

He handed the chunk back. “No.”

Jack sighed, gave Annabelle the chunk.

The crunch was surprisingly delicate.

They worked through a couple apples apiece, and during that time, another few cows wandered over. They proceeded to lay nearby for the most part, and another even had the audacity to rest its head on _Gabriel’s_ lap.

“Is this normal?” Gabriel asked. The fucking thing was _heavy_. 

Jack handed him an apple, gestured to the cow. “They remember me, and it’s a breed of cow known for being a bit friendlier. Milk cows. Not meat cows. Just accept it. Now get your knife and be nice.”

“What is it bites me?”

“I’ll kiss it better.” Jack said dryly.

_Well. There’s worse ways to die._

He dug out his knife and sliced off a chunk of apple, held it to the cow with the tips of his fingers.

The cow took it, gently, and managed to drip plenty of juice onto his pants.

“I didn’t know cows ate apples. I thought it was just grass and stuff.” He mentioned eventually.

“Really? Guess they didn't teach you cow diets. They love apples. You’ve seen horses and apples, right? Same thing. You just have to cut them up, otherwise it can get lodged in the esophagus. Trust me, shoving your arm down a cow’s throat is _not_ fun.”

He was too scared to ask if Jack was speaking from experience. He already knew the answer.

He and Jack rested there for a long time, just eating apples, feeding the cows, and quietly chatting with each other. Jack eventually fell asleep on his shoulder, and when Gabriel noticed, he realized how sickly idyllic the whole situation was. Sitting under an apple tree in Indiana, animals laying around them and his closest friend breathing softly on his shoulder.

Yeah.

Jack woke up about an hour later, immediately going back to softly stroking the cow’s head. “Sorry, Gabe.” He murmured. His voice was still endearingly sleepy.

“I’ve said it a hundred times, but your skill in falling the fuck asleep is impressive.”

“My lack of insomniac doesn’t make me impressive.”

“Narcoleptic.”

Jack snorted, gently pushed Annabelle’s head off of his lap and stood. Held out a hand to Gabriel.

It took him a bit longer to get the cow off of him, but he managed, took Jack’s hand and stood.

“Now can we finally go?”

“I suppose.”

They continued walking, finishing off the last of the apples as they went. It didn’t take long for a large farmhouse and some other buildings to loom in the distance, a distinct patch of trees nearby. He glanced over, opened his mouth to say something, but realized instead that Jack was a few paces behind. There was an uneasy expression on his face.

“Second thoughts?”

Jack shook his head, sped up to meet him. “No. I just… never thought I’d be back. Willingly.”

“Then why the hell are we here now?”

“Well I never expected to meet you, did I? You make me want to share some of the happier moments of my life with you. Considering all the ones after I left here were already with you for the most part… that just left this.”

Gabriel didn’t really know what to say. He was usually good with words, but trying to be open with somebody was far more difficult than manipulating them.

He settled for a hum, leaning over to affectionately ruffle through and make a mess of Jack’s hair.

While Jack was busy cursing at him and trying to fix it, they came up on the farmhouse. Now that they were closer, he could see that it was three, possibly four stories tall. The ground level was perhaps three or more times the size of the upper levels, which likely only held one or two rooms apiece. While the building was at least eighty years old, it had modern touches that made it obvious it had been worked on and added to a quite a bit. There were a few cars and smaller transportation devices that were also quite old, but obviously well cared-for and saw plenty of use. He could see the edge of a garden poking around the back of the house, what looked vaguely like a chicken coop, and four barns of varying sizes scattered nearby. There was fencing in places, and it seemed as if it were in the process of being replaced. He couldn’t see anybody as they walked through the yard and around to a door on the side, but it was obvious that the place was well loved; both a home and a place of work. 

They stopped at the door, where Jack, looking a bit nauseous, took a deep breath and opened it.

It was messy inside, but not unclean, with bits of people’s lives scattered about the kitchen they stepped into. Childrens’ and dogs’ toys, mostly. At the stove, an older woman with mousey hair in an apron worked on the finishing touches of some sort of pie.

All in all, it was a sickeningly saccharine cliche of rural American life. He didn’t know whether to be disgusted or impressed.

 _It’s homey, but damn. Overwhelmingly so_. The place gave him good vibes, he had to admit, though his home life detector was a bit wonky as he'd only had his grandmother growing up.

“You’re back early.” The woman at the stove commented. “Did you figure out what happened with the field anomaly?”

Jack swallowed. “Not quite. Hey, Ma.”

The woman, apparently Jack’s mother, jerked around with a loud gasp and her hand to her mouth.

“Jack! Oh my goodness!” She rushed forward and pulled Jack into a hug. It was almost comical, considering he stood a head over her.

_What the fuck. Did he not tell them we were coming?_

He stood there, arms folded, watching with a mounting feeling of _awkward_ as she gushed over her son.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you, baby! You’ve grown!”

“Ma.” Jack sounded embarrassed.

“And look at that! You look like you could lift the barn!”

“Ma!”

“And you look so grown up!”

“Ma, I _am_ an adult! Geez.” Jack managed to pull away, gesture over to Gabriel.

Jack’s mother seemed to notice him for the first time. “Oh! I’m so sorry. Hello. I’m Amy. You must be… Gabriel? Jack mentioned he was bringing somebody!”

_At least they knew we were coming._

He stuck out a hand. “Yeah. Gabriel. Nice to meet you.”

She blinked, shook his hand. “Oh my. You must be so warm in that! A black hooded jacket in late summer?” She turned to Jack with folded arms. “Get him into something better suited for the weather, honey! He’s a guest! Your room is still where you left it. Go ahead and put your things away and come have some pie, okay?” She pulled him down and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s so good to see you!”

“Good to see you too, Ma. Come on, Gabe.”

Jack bolted, leaving Gabriel to follow in his wake.

They wove their way through parts of the house, eventually heading up two flights of stairs and down a short hall to the end, where Jack opened a door to reveal another set of stairs.

“Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“This the attic?”

“Best room in the house. May be biased though, considering it has all my stuff.” Jack must’ve caught sight of his expression, because he rolled his beautiful blue eyes and grinned. “It’s not like that. It’s a finished attic. Has the best view of the house. My sister was always jealous.”

“Your…”

Jack turned, glanced around, then pointed to a picture frame on the wall. 

An idyllic family. Jack’s mother; Amy, about fifteen years younger. With her was a dark-haired, smiling man about her age; likely Jack’s father, a boy of about fourteen; spitting image of his dad, a light-haired girl of maybe ten, and another boy of about six. The youngest was obviously Jack, with those blue eyes and the messy blonde hair. He was missing a tooth, displayed front-and-center with a huge grin. 

“Yup. Ma, Dad, Kenneth, Cora, and me. Ma and dad sleep on the second floor, Kenneth and Cora used to sleep on the third, and I had the attic.”

The photo was throwing Gabriel a bit off. It was a lot of information input at once. “You mentioned you had a brother once, but I had no idea you had a sister. You never talk about your family, you know that?”

Jack shrugged. “How often do you talk about yours?”

_Fair point._

“Anyways.” Jack continued. “She pulled the same thing I did. At seventeen, she tested into a full ride to a college in New York. I think she visits on occasion, but as far as I know lives somewhere on the east coast. Works for some military tech company doing physics nonsense.”

“So your brother is the only one who stayed to work the… farm? Is that how you say it?”

Jack laughed, grabbed his hand and began to pull him up the stairs. “Yeah, that’s how they say it. Though, when I was telling Ma we were visiting, she mentioned he’d gotten married a few years ago. He probably doesn’t live here anymore.”

“I’m surprised you told her, considering her reaction when she saw you.” He said, having to duck under a particularly low bit of ceiling.

“I told her a few weeks ago that I may come visit at some point, and if I did, was bringing a guy named Gabriel along– but I didn’t… you know. Specify. I dunno how we want to handle that.”

And then they were in Jack’s childhood room. It was bigger than he’d expected, and the ceiling was high enough with the exception of above the long twin bed.

He rested his hands on his hips, turned in a full circle while Jack glared at him.

“Go ahead. Laugh. I’ll be in _your_ room in a couple of weeks.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t a fucking _nerd_.” Gabriel joked, pointing to an old avengers poster. 

_God, that has to be from the 10’s._

“Comic books are _cool_! Well. When you’re a teenager. And hey, I only used the internet for school. Not a lot of entertainment out here. I was stuck mostly reading comics and going outside to hang out.”

Fuck, Gabriel couldn’t even _imagine_ that hell. Even being stone-cold broke, there were a thousand things to do in LA at any given hour, day or night. He and his buddies would trawl the city until the early hours of the morning, breaking into warehouses and scuffling at the beach and sneaking into movies and so much else, all in a single night, and no two were the same. 

Until he’d left to join the military.

Posters covered the rough wooden walls, mostly comprised of comic book characters with the exception of one by the bed; A huge, beautiful map of constellations that nearly covered that wall. 

Made sense. The first time they went on what he considered a real date, they’d ended up hiking into the mountains near the base. They’d laid down on a hill and talked for hours, Jack occasionally pointing out constellations and certain stars. As a city kid, Gabriel had never really seen the night sky like that. Even after he’d joined the military, he’d never thought to look up before he’d met Jack.

There was a bed built into the slope of one wall, next to a window that was large enough and nearly close enough to roll out of while asleep were it open. Besides that, there was a desk, a dresser, and a side table. Two doors; one slightly opened to reveal part of a sink, and the other closed. Likely a closet.

_Wait._

The bedsheets were gray and very adult, but sticking out-

He grabbed the edge before Jack could stop him and pulled it into the light.

A full-sized, round Captain America Shield pillow.

He held it up, grinning at Jack’s mortified face.

“It’s soft.” Jack protested weakly.

“You’re-“

_Cute_

“Such a _nerd_.”

“I’m the farthest thing from a nerd! I grew up on a farm and now I fuck up terrorists for a living! It’s not 2011, _Gabriel_ , comics aren’t nerdy!”

He threw the pillow at Jack.

“I know. I just think it’s funny when your face gets all red like that.” 

Jack made a disgusted noise, threw the pillow back to the bed and followed it with his backpack.

Gabriel did the same.

“Gabe, get that hoodie off. You’re going to get me killed.”

“No.”

“Aw, please?”

“No.”

Jack shot him that devilish look again. “I have some more summer appropriate clothes you could borrow.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

“You’re very handsome, you know. I might make it up to you if I can actually see your arms for once.”

“...Fine.”

He threw on some of Jack’s “summer” clothes, consisting of a sleeveless tee and some shorts. He didn’t like being without his hood, but the way Jack looked at him was enough to allay that suddenly minor annoyance.

“C’mon. Ma’s waiting.”

As they went back downstairs, he figured it would be the best time to ask.

“So, uh, what _are_ we going to tell your parents? Why are you so hesitant? Are they… not…?”

Jack sighed. “No, that’s not really the issue. They know I’m, um, I mean, you’re not the first guy I’ve been with.”

“...I’m not?”

Jack shrugged. “I thought you knew. I’m pretty sure I mentioned it sometime during my first few weeks in the squad. You probably weren’t paying much attention, considering we weren’t even friends at the time.”

“Well. Alright. So… what do we tell them?”

“They’re not dumb. I wouldn’t bring just a friend all the way to Indiana. I say we just do what we’ve kinda been doing. Not really say yes or no, but just say that it would be against regulations. Heavily imply, perhaps, but not say outright. Sound good?”

“Sure. It’s worked so far.”

“Great. Also–” Jack cut himself off, running his hand through his hair. It was a stressed running. Gabriel knew the difference.

“What?”

“Nothing. Ready for some pie?” Jack sped off before Gabriel could inquire further.

 _He’s acting so_ weird _. I don’t like it._

In the kitchen, Jack’s mother was busy setting up a couple plates.

“Do you like apple pie, Gabriel? How about ice cream? Vanilla? It’s homemade.” She enthused, prodding at them to sit down at the table.

“Yeah. Er, yes please.”

“What do I call her?” He hissed at Jack. “Ma’am? Mrs. Morrison? Amy?”

Jack shrugged, seeming to be enjoying Gabriel’s struggle. “Any. She’s not picky.”

She set down two massive portions in front of them, took a seat across the table. “You never specified when you’d be nearby! You should really call, honey. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

Jack scratched the back of his head. “Sorry Ma. Just wanted to surprise you.” 

She shook her head, smile in place. “Well-”

A voice came from behind them; older, male.

“John. You’re home.”

Gabriel noted how quickly the joy dropped from Jack’s face, and after flickering through fear and apprehension, settled on something more neutral.

Jack turned. “Hey, dad. Yeah.”

The voice belonged to the man in the photograph, a decade and a half tacked onto his tired features. Despite his age, he was in amazing condition. Probably had to do with all the farming or whatever.

“It’s good to see you. Now, who’s this?” Jack’s father asked, eyes flicking to him.

“This is Gabriel. We always partnered up in the ATU.”

“ATU?” John squinted.

“Oh, right. After I went through basic and a couple other things, I was selected for the Anti-Terrorism Unit. S-Squad.”

 _They didn’t know that?_ One of the first things Gabriel had done was call his grandmother.

“I see. Well, it’s nice to meet you.” Jack’s father gave him a surprisingly warm smile, shook his hand. “Any friend of John’s is welcome here.”

“Thank you.” Gabriel said. “It’s a nice place you have here. Very, uh, open.”

“Gabe’s a city kid.” Jack said. “He saw his first cow about an hour ago.”

“Shut it, Jackie.” He teased.

John and Amy exchanged glances. 

“Want some pie, Honey?” Amy asked John.

“Yes ma’am.” John sat at the table with them, and as he did, a child of about three zoomed in through the door, laughing and screaming.

“Argghh! Get back here! I’m gonna get you!” A grown man sprinted through after the child, skidding to a shocked halt when he saw them.

“Uh. Hey, Jack.” The man said weakly. 

_Kenneth. I guess we know why there are so many kids’ toys scattered about._

“Hey.” Jack said.

“You’re, uh, looking… not shot.”

“Thanks. You too.” 

Kenneth vaguely gestured towards Gabriel. “This…?”

“Gabriel.” Jack informed. “Buddy of mine from my unit.” 

“Buddy.” Kenneth repeated.

“Yep.” Gabriel said. “You must be the older brother. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. You-“

“Daddy!” The three year old girl launched herself back into the room to tug at Kenneth’s hand, but halted with an open mouth when she saw them.

“Rebecca, this is Uncle Jack. I told you about him, remember? He joined the military.”

She stared at Jack, then back up at Kenneth, then at Gabriel. She pointed at Jack, then Gabriel.

Kenneth sighed. “The one on the left. Do you remember your left?”

_Christ, the kid’s an idiot._

The little girl squinted, then toddled over to Jack with wide eyes. She made a gun with her hand. “Pew?”

Jack sighed, eerily enough in exactly the same way his brother just had. “Pew.”

She grinned, hugged his leg, then caught sight of a toy on the ground and wandered off with it.

“Kids.” Kenneth said. He seemed a bit unsure of himself.

“Heard you married. Tamara?” Jack asked.

“Yeah. She’s at home with the baby. We, uh, built another house near the orchard.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks. Well, I’ll see you at dinner I suppose. I should go make sure she doesn’t burn the place down. Nice to see you, and nice meeting you, Gabriel.”

Kenneth cursed under his breath as a crash came from the living room, and sped up.

It was all so normal; out of some hallmark movie or something.

“So, should we set up Ken’s old room for your friend, John?” Jack’s father suggested.

_Oh boy._

Jack shrugged. “Nah, we’ll make do.”

A silence stretched on.

“Your bed is pretty small.” Amy said eventually.

Jack shrugged again, the tips of his ears reddening. “We slept in way worse places during some missions. It’ll be fine.”

“Well, what do you think, Gabriel?” Amy asked. “You’re the guest.”

“It’s fine with me. No need to go to any trouble on my account.” He said.

“It’s really no trouble. But, uh, I suppose… if you two… oh, Jack? Could you do me a favor?”

Jack perked up, obviously relieved at the change in subject. “Sure. What’s up?”

“One of the calves is sick. Your brother can’t figure out what’s wrong with her, and you always did have quite the knack for anything animal related. Would you mind taking a look?” Amy said.

“Of course. Barn?”

“Yes.” Jack’s father said. “She’s with the mother, still. Let us know if you need help separating them.”

“Nah, I’ll get Gabe to help me.” Jack said, collecting everybody’s dishes to deposit into the sink.

_I will?_

_Fuck. Not more cows._ Hadn’t Jack _specifically_ told him not to get between a mother cow and the baby? Calf? _Whatever._

Later that night, they all sat around the massive dining table in a room adjacent to the kitchen. 

He, Jack, Jack’s mother and father, his brother, his brother’s wife, the little girl, and a baby in a high chair. The meal was the most awkward for he and the brother, apparently. Everyone else spoke freely.

“So, Gabriel.” Amy asked eventually, probably taking pity on he and his silence. “Where are you from? Jack mentioned something about a city.”

Gabriel hesitated. “Uh, LA. Los Angeles. California.”

“Oh! That must be so nice. I hear the beaches are lovely.”

“‘s nice. Lot of tourists in the summer though.” He said.

“I imagine. I’ve seen pictures, and it seems quite beautiful.”

_As long as you stay out of the inner city, sure._

“So, how did you and John meet?” Jack’s father asked. “He said you’re in the same unit. Are they not large?”

Jack shot him an apologetic look. Gabriel shrugged. “Yeah. He joined the S unit, which is the smallest AT unit. Maybe twenty of us. You know. ‘Cause it’s the most elite.”

“Oh, really?” Kenneth said. “That’s pretty cool. So you’re really good at that… military stuff, then?”

Jack shot his brother a puzzled glance. “I guess, yeah.”

Gabriel snorted. “Yeah. Jack’s actually pretty amazing. Second best in the squad, after me of course. Considering we’re in the S unit of one of the more intense lines of military work… I’d consider that really good at military stuff.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “You wish I was the second best. I could totally take you.” He joked.

“One-v-one me, behind the dumpster after school.”

Jack laughed.

“I didn’t realize you were really into it that much.” Kenneth said, wrestling a butter knife out of his daughter’s hand.

“I’m sure he’s not that impressive.” Jack’s father dismissed. “What sort of things do you do in the ATU? Did you just stop attacks, or as well actively hunt them down?"

It took Gabriel a moment to realize what Jack’s father had just said. It threw him off guard, just a little.

... _what?_

He glanced over to Jack, who was staring down and poking at his pork with a blank expression

_He’s not even trying to defend himself. And what the hell does this asshole know? He’s probably never even seen a hint of combat._

“...no. Like I said, Jack’s pretty amazing. Impressive falls under that umbrella. You-“

He glanced over as Jack elbowed him in the side, mouthing _drop it_.

John Morrison shot him a curious look, then shrugged. “I don’t mean to insult you, Gabriel. I have no doubt that you’re quite the soldier. I’m sure people just slip through the cracks and get into the impressive squads, or whatnot. Though-“

A cell phone rang. Kenneth answered.

“Yeah? Oh, damn. Er, I mean, darn.”

“Daddy said a bad word.” The toddler whispered to her mother.

Kenneth hung up. “Sorry Ma, I gotta run. The Lewis family’s water line broke. I need to return some tools I borrowed.”

Jack’s father finished off his cob and stood. “I’ll come with you. Our water line had some issues earlier in the year, so maybe I can help.”

The two departed, and soon after, Jack excused the both of them as well.

Once back in Jack’s room, he turned and grabbed Jack by the lapels. “What, you’re just going to sit there and let him talk about you like that?”

Jack jerked away. “Shut the fuck up! I know when to pick my battles, okay?” He snapped. “It’s not worth it.”

“I dunno, it seems pretty fucking worth it to me. Your own father is-” 

“You think I don’t _know_? I lived here for nearly eighteen years!”

Gabriel went to snap back, but instead took a deep breath. Jack was obviously getting worked up. Yelling at him wouldn’t help.

“Jack, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s fine.” Jack took a step back, seeming a bit embarrassed. “I… Yeah.”

“Has it really always been like this?”

Jack shifted uneasily, his gaze wandering. “It doesn’t matter, Gabe. I’m sorry. I really hoped we could avoid this.”

He stepped forward, took Jack’s hand and pressed a kiss to the back. “It does matter. Jack, why didn’t you ever tell me?”

Jack tried to pull away, but Gabriel kept a tight hold on his hand. “It’s really not a big deal. My dad and I don’t get along. That’s it.”

“Sure looked like more than that. He was all friendly; seemed glad to see you. What the hell is his problem?”

“He’s not the one with the problem. I am. Listen, it _really_ doesn’t matter. Let’s just go out and do something.”

“Not a chance. I’m worried about you.”

Jack tried to pull away again, and failed.

“Gabe, c’mon. I really don’t want to bother you with all this. Okay?”

“Bad excuse. Not a bother. Not okay. What the _fuck_ do you mean by saying you’re the problem?”

Jack very nearly slipped away, so instead, Gabriel pushed him and tumbled both of them onto the bed. Pinned him down.

“Talk to me, Jackie.”

“Can’t you just leave it alone?”

Gabriel gave him an unimpressed stare.

“No.”

Jack sighed. “Okay. Here. My dad is a pinnacle of the community. He’s a great guy; he’ll help anybody who asks. The entire town loves him. He’s a great husband, and a great father. My brother and sister adored him. I’ve never heard him say a bad word about anybody _ever_. Except, well, me. I don’t know what I did. I don’t have a single memory of him, not even in my early childhood, ever telling me I’ve been anything halfway better than adequate. If my brother accomplished something, he got a smile and ruffled hair and, ‘that was tough. Good job!’. I would be lucky if he even acknowledged I did anything. Of course, if I fucked up, he would be all over that. Hell, even him telling me it’s ‘good to see you’ today was so _weird_.” Jack sounded miserable. “It’s just me, I guess.”

Gabriel was flabbergasted. “And your mother never said anything?”

Jack shrugged. “No. She’s a great Ma, don’t get me wrong, but… no. She was really the only one who was nice to me, though. Well. Except my sister, but she was always studying in her room, so we didn’t talk much.”

“Jack. Eighteen years?”

“It’s not that bad. My dad was a bit of a dick. That’s it.”

“Did it ever get physical?”

Jack hesitated, and in that moment, he had to restrain himself from tracking down Mr. John Morrison and handing his ass to him.

“Only rarely. He was more of an emotional abuse kind of guy.”

The joke fell flat.

“And what about your brother?”

“...He’s mellowed out.”

“From?”

Jack shrugged. “Being a dick. There’s not a lot of entertainment around here. He and his buddies… well.” He pulled up his shirt, revealing the scar on his lower chest Gabriel had seen a thousand times. A puncture wound. “My brother’s friend, Finn, was the worst, but they were all horrible. All of them years older than me.”

Gabriel brushed his fingers across the scar. He’d seen it before, but he’d always assumed it had been from Jack’s military time, before he’d joined the ATU. In retrospect, it was far too old for that.

“What…?” He started.

“I was, I dunno, nine or so. They had to have been around fifteen. I had finished up my chores, was about to head to my treehouse when they wandered nearby and saw me. They seemed bored. By that time, I knew what that meant. I tried to run, but they cornered me in the south barn. His buddies pinned me down, he grabbed a pitchfork. They taunted me for a while while he poked at me. Eventually, his hand slipped. Stabbed me pretty bad. Dad had to drive me to the medical center in town, all while yelling at me that I should’ve been more of a man and fought back or _something_. That’s just one time.” Jack gave a humorless laugh. “You’ve asked me before how I’m so damn good at the base courses and climbing. Yeah. I had a lot of practice.”

Gabriel didn’t know what to say. “Jack.”

“I know, I know. You don’t have to say anything. I’m just sorry it came to this.”

“No, that’s not- I just don’t know why you didn’t tell me about any of this. I mean…”

“I told you. I didn’t want to- I don’t want you to think I’m-“ Jack jerked up, opened the window. “Fuck this, let’s go to the roof.”

“What?”

Jack shot him a grin. Gabriel could tell he was trying for his usual devilish look, but all he saw was a mask. Guilt.

“The roof, Gabe. I did it all the time when I was a kid. Great place to stargaze and hang out.”

Gabriel shrugged, finally acquiesced in letting Jack up and clambered out onto the roof with him.

It was initially a steep climb up, but the years of house additions left plenty of strangely shaped roof patches for them to relax in. They kicked up their feet on some sloped paneling and watched the first few stars come out.

“You’re gonna love the sky here, Gabe.” Jack said. “It’s even better than those mountains out by the old base. There was still a ton of light pollution there.”

Gabriel hummed, wrapped an arm around Jack’s shoulders as usual.

Unlike usual, Jack stiffened, even made as if to flinch away. He seemed to catch himself however, and snuggled in as usual.

He sighed. “You aren’t okay, Jack. Is there something else you want to tell me?”

“No.”

Gabriel knew he shouldn’t push, but then again, he wasn’t a nice person. Or a patient person. He’d already been far more delicate with Jack than he’d be for anyone else on the goddamn planet.

“Jackie. It’s okay, you know. I’m not going to think any less of you.”

Jack didn’t say anything, but Gabriel heard his breath hitch. Not in the usual good way.

“Why can’t you just leave it alone?” Jack said miserably. “I just wanted to show you around. Maybe pick some blackberries. Introduce you to Annabelle. Show you the night sky. The good stuff. We don’t need to get into the bad. I’m _fine_.”

“You’re not fine, Jack. You forget that I actually _know_ you. I guess you aren’t used to that, but guess what? I care about you.”

He leaned in to kiss Jack’s forehead, but Jack flinched away and sat up out of Gabriel’s arm before he could.

“You can’t promise you won’t think any less of me. You don’t know what I’d say.” Jack whispered, wrapping his arms around his knees and gazing into the paneling.

Gabriel sat up, but didn’t try to touch him. “I already promised, and I stand by my words.”

“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Gabe, and I’ve been a selfish idiot.”

“I somehow doubt that. You know, we can leave at any time. There’s nothing they can do.”

Jack took a deep breath. “Yeah. But fuck them. I’m going to show you everything I want to show you.”

Gabriel reached out, rubbed Jack’s cheek with his thumb.

“Jackie. It’s okay.”

“I don’t know whether to love you or hate you. You’re so good at manipulating people. Especially me.”

Gabriel laughed under his breath. “As if you don’t do the same to me. Listen, Jack. I love you. I’ve dated a few people before, but you’re the only person I’ve ever said that to. Give me some credit.”

Jack didn’t smile, or even look at him. “I- I know. I’m sorry. I should’ve told you a long time ago. You deserve to know, considering we’re… but, like I said, I’m selfish.”

Gabriel wasn’t sure as to what they were talking about anymore. About Jack’s dad? His brother? Something else?

After a long minute of silence, Jack sighed. It was too dark for Gabriel to see his face anymore.

“I told you about my Brother’s friend. Finnley. Finn.”

“Yeah.”

“Most of my brother’s friends didn’t bother me unless they were all in a group and just looking for something to do. He was different. About… six or seven years older than me, I guess. He’d pick on me whenever he saw me, even if nobody else was around. When I was ten… things got worse. He-“ Jack swallowed. “I… really don’t know how to talk about this, Gabe. I’ve only ever told one other person.”

“I guess tell me like you told them.”

 _Who in the world did he tell?_ He couldn’t imagine him telling his mother, or god forbid his father.

“There would be liberal tears if I did that.” Jack snorted halfheartedly.

Instead of replying, Gabriel rubbed his shoulder, rested his hand there in a way he hoped was comforting.

“He started to, I dunno. Get sexual.”

 _Oh._ Gabriel realized. _Yeah. That makes sense. When we first got together, he was so hesitant. I thought it was because I was the first guy he was with, but I guess…_ He felt a bit guilty, now.

“Jackie.”

Jack continued, as if he was just trying to spit it all out at once and never deal with it again.

“Started when I was ten. When I was about fifteen, I punched him so hard I knocked a tooth out. He never touched me again. It was _hell_ during those years, though. I always had to be careful. I could be digging up dead corn plants in the middle of the field and a hand would just appear on my shoulder. I could try to run or fight, Sure, but hell. I was a _kid_. He was so much bigger than me, and usually faster. He’d just pin me down and do whatever he wanted, always talking about my hair or my eyes or saying what a cute kid I was. The worst part is that my brother _knew_. He didn’t care. In fact, sometimes he’d set me up. ‘Hey Jack, go down to the east barn. You left your sweater.’. And I’d get there and Finn would _be_ there and then it’d be too late. I guess I was just lucky that he never did any real damage, because it wasn’t like I could tell anyone. Dad would just yell at me for not being enough of a man or whatever and blame me. Ma would tell dad. My brother already knew. He was apart of the problem. My sister? Well… I didn’t want to bother her, and it’s not like she could’ve done anything anyways. Even if I could make it to the doc’s by myself, I was very much a minor. He’d call my dad. Between my family and Finn and everything, I probably would’ve tried to kill myself if I hadn’t had Ethan.”

“...Ethan?”

“My best friend since we were toddlers. He’s the only one who knew and believed me about all that nonsense. We did pretty much everything together. He’s, uh, also the guy I dated for a couple years, but I broke it off eventually when I decided to leave for the military. About a year before I actually left. He’s a real genius, loves astronomy and stuff, but has _no_ ambition at all. He could probably be a talented astronomer or something, but he’s content to just… farm. I dunno. I owe him my life for just being there for me, but, I wish he’d do better for himself.”

“Y-“

Jack barreled on. “I’m just sorry, Gabe. I should’ve told you a long time ago. I just-” his breath hitched again, and Gabriel realized he was in near-tears. “You’re just so fucking _perfect._ You’re confident and stupidly handsome and an _amazing_ leader and soldier and I’m just a _mess_. I’m absolutely pathetic and I can’t even- even-“

And then Jack broke down into sobs, not even fighting when Gabriel gathered him into his arms and held him.

It was a world away from the confident, cocky, grinning soldier Gabriel had fallen for out in the field, but he’d never loved Jack more than now.

A good ten or so minutes later, Jack finally calmed down enough to breathe normally.

“I’m-“ Jack began.

“Don’t you _dare_ apologize.” Gabriel warned. “It’s okay, Jack. It’s okay. I’m the one who’s sorry. I had no idea. But listen. You’re _not_ pathetic, you’re not a mess, and you’re not ruined or tainted or anything if that’s what you’re trying to say. If anything, I think you’re amazing. You came out of a fucking horrible childhood and managed to be the best man I know by a mile. I love you, okay? It’s going to be fine. Thank you for trusting me.”

It was funny, Gabriel reflected later that night in Jack’s bed. 

He’d been thrust onto his grandmother as an infant by druggie parents who he’d never seen again, grown up in inner-city near-poverty. Yet, his childhood had been happy. His grandma was a great woman. He’d gotten into his fair share of trouble, sure, but it had been a great childhood.

Jack had been born into a great family on paper. Two happy parents, siblings, relatively wealthy, near a peaceful town, on thousands of acres of farmland- and yet, his childhood had been absolute hell. 

And they’d both ended up in the same place. 

Just went to show, he supposed.

He woke up to a cold bed that morning. Jack didn’t seem to be around, so he stretched, threw on some more of Jack’s ‘summer-appropriate’ clothes, and went downstairs.

“Oh, Gabriel! Good morning!” Amy beamed at him, back in her apron and working on a couple packed lunches.

“Morning.” He said. After last night, seeing any of Jack’s family left a bad taste in his mouth. The mother was by far not the worst, but really, those who were silent in child abuse were just as complicit.

“Care for some breakfast? Jack is out feeding the chickens right now, I think.”

“Sure.”

After he mowed down far too many pancakes and eggs, he went out to try to find Jack. The morning was bright and cheerful, and somehow peaceful despite the general air of business. A strange feeling, considering there was again nobody in sight.

He wandered around the chicken coop, then looked around back to one of the barns. He paused when he heard a voice.

“-Just wanted to say it.” Kenneth’s voice finished from inside the barn.

Gabriel moved back into the shadow as Jack replied. 

“Great. What do you want me to say? All’s forgiven?”

Should be be eavesdropping? No. Was he about to?

Duh.

“No.” Kenneth said reluctantly. “I still figured I should apologize. It’s not going to make your childhood any retroactively better, but… I _do_ regret it. Ever since I had kids, I realized I was probably the worst sibling of all time.”

“That award is definitely within your reach.” Jack said dryly.

“I know. I don’t expect you to forgive and forget or anything, but just remember. My kids had nothing to do with it.”

“Wait, what? _Excuse_ me?” Jack sounded incredulous. “Are you insinuating that I would take it out on your kids?”

“Well-“

“Well guess what? I’m not a fucking _monster_ that would stoop to hurt a child. That’s _you_. That’s _dad._ Fuck you, Kenneth. You can shove your fucking apology.”

Gabriel skirted the side of the building, made as if he’d been walking towards it.

Jack stormed out of the barn, darkened face breaking into a smile the instant he saw Gabriel.

“Gabe! Hey, you’re awake!”

“Hey Jack. Your mom said you were feeding chickens or whatever.”

“Yeah, I went for the pigs after. Get enough sleep?”

“Maybe.”

Jack chuckled. “We can get you in a nap later.” He hesitated. “Gabe. About last night-“

Gabriel held up a hand. “It’s okay. You don’t need to say anything.”

Jack relaxed. Gave him a small smile. “Ma said she’s making a cobbler. Asked us to go pick some blackberries. You down?”

“That sounds sickeningly rural. Let’s do it.”

They took four-wheelers down a couple miles to some berry patches near the woods, and spent a few hours messing around and throwing berries at each other. They were blackberries, but even the bitter edge was considerably less than store-bought.

With the sun and the light wind and the beautiful scenery-- and Jack, it was an amazing day. Jack even seemed to have forgotten about the tense issues of last night, now laughing and poking fun at Gabriel and smiling in that way he did that Gabriel loved so much. 

He could see why Jack wanted to come back, despite the people. 

“Hey, Gabe!” Jack suddenly hissed, crouching down. “Look!”

Gabriel glanced near the woods where Jack was pointing. A fox paced near the edge of the trees, sniffing around a patch of mushrooms.

 _Holy shit. A real fox_!

_Oh no._

“We don’t have to kill it, do we?” He hissed back.

Jack sent him a startled glance. “What?”

“...no? It’s not a threat to the chickens? I have no idea how this works!”

Jack shook his head, smile back in place. “Nah, unless it proves itself a threat. I just thought you’d like to see it.

_I did._

“It looks soft.” He confessed.

“They are. We have some pelts laying about if you want one.” Jack said, standing back up.

“Not a chance.” Gabriel said.

“Coward.”

They spent that night on the roof again, looking at the stars and enjoying the cool night air. Despite everything, it was truly quite beautiful. 

The next day they went out to the corn fields, as Jack’s father had asked them to investigate a broken fence about a mile down the road. They weren’t in a rush, so they decided to take their time and walk.


	2. Indiana II, where people are met and minor revenge occurs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I decided to cut it into 4 chapters instead of 5 for the sake of symmetry. Still the same length of course.  
> Also, I knew I said I was going to post it weekly and it's only been a day. But Earth Systems texbooks are boring and I can't help myself. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

“After this, maybe I can show you the woods. My treehouse is pretty damn impressive, if I do say so myself.” Jack was saying.

“You just did.” Gabriel responded. He was busy trying to ignore the open space. Besides the corn, he just couldn’t get over the sky being so deep and empty.

“Here.” Jack said, halting at the damaged fence.

It was a wood and steel mix, but a seven-foot section of it had been crumpled and ruined beyond repair.

_Strange. If it were wood, a particularly airheaded teen on an ATV could take it down. With the steel…_

“It’s some strange damage.” Jack mused, echoing his thoughts. “Doesn’t really get this bad often.”

“So you’ve seen it before?”

Jack crouched, pawed at the broken bits of fencing. “Yes and no.”

“Some sort of big animal, maybe?”

“Perhaps…” Jack hesitated. “The steel is pretty thin, so a determined bear or bull could get through. Thing is, we don’t have bears around here. The bulls are all in a pen across the way, and they tend to steer clear of the corn.”

They both stared at said corn, which had a clear path of broken, destroyed crops running through it and eventually turning a corner.

“Huh.” Gabriel said. “That’s… not normal, right?”

“No. It’s not.” Jack glanced over. “Armed?”

“Of course.”

“We should investigate.”

As they prepared to head into the corn destruction path, there was a shuffle of footsteps behind them, and then Jack was on the ground with somebody on top of him.

He couldn’t get a clear shot, so he moved around to-

“Jack! Oh my god, it _is_ you! Holy shit! What are you _doing_ here? I can’t believe you’re home! I missed you!”

Gabriel relaxed as Jack pushed the guy off, giving him a shoulder pat. 

“Jesus, Ethan. I almost shot you.” Jack said, reholstering his pistol as he stood back up.

The man, apparently Jack’s childhood friend, Ethan, adjusted his crooked glasses and moved forward again to grab Jack’s hand with sparkling eyes.

“I never thought you’d be back! What are you doing here? Are you done with the military? Are you going to stay? I have so much to show you!”

Ethan moved forward to hug Jack again, who awkwardly reciprocated with a good-natured grimace at Gabriel.

“Just a visit, sorry. I’m back to the military soon enough. Some supposedly cool, dangerous, ultra-secret program, actually.”

Ethan deflated a bit, stepped away as Jack peeled him off. “Oh. Well. It’s still so good to see you! You never call, and your phone line was dead when I tried.”

Jack smiled, but Gabriel saw guilt in his eyes. “Oh… well. Yeah. When I got off my parents’ phone plan, I was already living on base. I guess I could’ve called my parents to get your number, but… well. You know.”

Ethan winced. “Yeah. Um, I was headed this way to deliver a package to your dad, actually.”

“That explains that. Anyways, this is Gabriel.” Jack gestured to him.

Ethan turned, looking startled when he caught sight of him— as if he somehow hadn’t noticed Gabriel’s presence before.

“...oh. Um. It’s… nice to meet you.” Ethan said, a hint crestfallen.

“Same. Jack said you’re a childhood friend.” He said.

Ethan smiled a little. “He told you about me? Yeah! We grew up together. We were, uh, more than friends for a while, too. Are you and Jack…?”

Jack grimaced again behind Ethan. “Well, that would be… against regulation.” Jack said slowly. 

Ethan perked back up. “Oh! Alright!”

_Wow, he’s dense. Or maybe desperate._

“Jack, you _have_ to come see this!” Ethan enthused, his attention already back to being focused entirely on Jack. “I’ve got a house now of course, and I built this amazing little observatory nearby! Oh, and-“

“Ethan.” Jack interrupted. “Of course we’ll hang out a bit. We’ll be here for a week or so. Right now, we’re actually investigating.” Jack pointed towards the obviously ruined crops and fence.

“Oh! What happened?”

“We don’t know. Hence, the investigation.” Jack said, obviously fighting back a smile.

“Right. Right. Look, I’m sorry if I’m being weird, it’s just… I didn’t expect to see you! I was worried- worried I would never see you again. Or even _talk_ to you again.”

“We’ll definitely exchange phone numbers before we go.” Jack promised.

“Okay. Yeah.” Ethan seemed unsatisfied. “Uh, do you guys want help investigating?”

“No. It could be dangerous.” Jack said, resting his hand on his pistol. “How about we come see your observatory tonight instead?”

“I…” Ethan finally seemed to see the pistol. “Wow. That looks… official.”

“It’s military.”

“You really have changed.” Ethan said. “A lot.” He glanced away, scratching the back of his head.

The same thing Jack did, Gabriel noted.

“Anyways!” Ethan began to back away towards his amazingly silent hoverboard. “I’ll, um, make some dinner! For tonight. If you guys are coming. Both of you?”

“Yep.” Jack hesitated, then stepped forward and hugged Ethan again. 

Ethan beamed.

“See you!” The bespeckled astronomer-farmer hopped back onto his board, snagged a package off the ground, and went off towards the farmhouse. 

They watched him go.

“Uh, Sorry Gabe. That was unexpected.”

“It’s fine. You feel pretty damn bad, don’t you?”

Jack sighed, scuffing the dirt with his foot. “Horrible. He was always there for me, and I didn’t even give him my fucking phone number.”

Gabriel decided to go for the jugular.

“Why?”

“I…” Jack cast a miserable glance towards the farmhouse. “I guess… well. I hoped he’d forget about me. We were best friends for our entire childhood, and when we started dating… he was so sure about us. He was always talking about us moving in together and maybe adopting and getting some cows and building an observatory and everything. He’s so sweet. I loved him, I really did. I still do, I suppose, just… not romantically. But the more he talked about how great our future would be, the more it made me realize that there wasn’t a chance in hell I would spend the rest of my life in this fucking town. He’s really attached to the place. I tried to convince him that leaving might be good. He could get a job in planetary science or something- he’s really good at that stuff. But no. He’s fine with keeping it as a hobby. He just had no _ambition_. I guess that’s a bit hypocritical of me since I don’t really have much either, but at least I had enough to leave. I broke up with him when I was seventeen. I already knew I would enlist, and I didn’t want to lead him on for another year before I left. He was crushed, of course, but… it had to have been better than the alternative, right? We stayed friends, but it seemed he always thought I would come around eventually. He’s just too good for me. I hoped if we didn’t talk, he’d forget about me and find somebody that deserved him. He didn’t.”

It wasn’t surprising. Jack was easy to fall for.

Gabriel knew from experience.

“Well, it’s not your fault if he can’t move past the guy he dated for two years as a teen.”

Jack sent him a half-glare. “It’s not that easy. We were best friends for… well. From toddlers to when I left. Not to mention, he’s always been a bit… naïve. He’s a real sucker for those horrible romance movies. Like you. But he takes them way more literally. He probably thinks if he holds out, he’ll get there in the end. He’s smart, but, ah… not particularly wise. Very sweet, though.”

Gabriel snorted. “I dunno. Sounds like a perfect match.”

“Shut up!” Jack gave him a light smack, grin back in place. “I feel horrible for doing that to him. I really don’t know how to fix things.”

“Date him.” Gabriel joked.

He wasn’t sure why he said that. A part of him was afraid that Jack would, maybe. Testing the waters by cracking a half-joke. He hated himself for it, but despite his confidence, he was always afraid that Jack would come to his senses, gain some real self-confidence and self-respect, and leave him for somebody better.

He wasn’t a good person. He knew that. Jack knew that. But for some reason… Jack stayed. Smiled at him. Good-naturedly rolled his beautiful blue eyes at Gabriel’s moods. Followed him to hell and back- or in this case, to some weird secret military program and hopefully back. 

As always, though, Gabriel’s deeply buried fears seemed unfounded. 

“Gabe! That’s _so_ not funny. I really don’t know what to do. God, I guess… well… fuck me, I don’t know. Assure him I’m not coming back. Ask him if he’s found anyone yet.”

“You could come clean about us.” Gabriel suggested. “He probably won’t tell anyone.”

“That’s true.” Jack bit his lip. “I’m just afraid that it won’t help. If he really is stuck on some weird idea that patience and persistence will net him his goal in the end, then I don’t know what to do.”

Gabriel shrugged. “It sucks, but maybe there isn’t anything you _can_ do. You can’t help somebody who doesn’t want to be helped.”

Jack stopped his pacing. “I feel like that would be a horrible move on my part, though. I want to help him. I owe him so much. He was so patient, even when I was bawling about the latest… Well. You know.” Jack sighed. “ We should move in before he comes back this way.”

Jack drew his pistol and went in.

Gabriel followed.

They crept as silently as they could through the crushed corn. It was nearly impossible not to make any noise going through the mess, but they did alright. Jack seemed agitated, going more quickly than he should’ve, but otherwise they had gone into full terrorist-hunt mode.

They didn’t have to go far. Around the bend in the path of destruction, about ten meters away, was a hunk of metal with scorch marks around it.

An omnic.

They exchanged glances.

“Huh.” Jack whispered.

“Huh.” Gabriel whispered back.

They kept watch for a while, but there was no movement.

“The fence was damaged sometime between nine last night and five this morning.” Jack murmured. “It’s been laying here for a while, most likely. The corn nearby is scorched, but there doesn’t seem to be any active heat source. You read that documentation on omnic classification, didn’t you Mr. Perfect? Any thoughts?”

Gabriel hummed, absentmindedly leaning over to tweak Jack’s nose at the jab.

_Let’s see. Light green metallic chassis. No obvious identifying marks, but it’s on its side. Non-humanoid, wings half-retracted. Wait, is that a scorch mark, or a symbol? A symbol, I think. Is that…?_

“It's an MT-50 package delivery bot. UN. They deliver classified information or sensitive packages, generally.” He said.

“And it’s been shot down.” Jack finished.

“Not good.” Gabriel said.

“Very not good. Somebody probably wants that information.”

“For sure.”

They were both silent for some time, and then Jack turned to him with an expression that surprised him. A grin.

“We really can’t get a break, can we Gabe? The Terrorists even come to us! We must be _real_ good at our job.”

Gabriel couldn’t help it, barked out a laugh. This wasn’t a laughing situation, but Jack always managed to surprise him.

“I guess so. We should probably call it in, though.”

Jack gave him a mock salute. “Aye, commander.”

Yeah. Gabriel was _not_ proud about how much that turned him on.

A lot. Obviously.

“Keep watch.” He commanded, swiping his phone from his pocket.

“Alright. I-”

“Hey!” A voice from behind spoke.

They were both around in an instant, their pistols trained on the figure.

Kenneth slowly held up his arms, ambivalence morphing to terror.

“Jesus.” Jack lowered his gun. “Sorry. A bit jumpy. Get back to the house. There’s possibly a terrorist organization around here, or, uh, something. The fence was broken by a UN transport omnic that was shot down.”

Kenneth’s gaze traveled to the downed omnic. “Holy shit.”

“That’s right. Now get everyone to the house and make sure they’re armed. We’re going to call this in to base. Er. A base.” Jack said.

Kenneth remained rooted to place, staring at the bot.

“This can’t be coincidence, right? Don’t you guys hunt down terrorists?”

Gabriel shrugged. “We aren’t exactly important. No reason for them to target us, and anyways, this doesn’t seem to be related whatsoever. Now fucking _go_.”

Kenneth nodded and bolted.

“I hope he makes it back alright.” Jack commented.

“Do you?”

Jack seemed to consider it. “Yeah” he finally said. “He does have two innocent kids and an innocent wife.”

“Fair.” Gabriel replied, scrolling through his contacts. He finally found the number of the captain of the ATU S-squad. He didn’t exactly have many military contacts.

Yet. He had plans.

The captain picked up after a few rings.

“Reyes, it’s late.” The captain complained. “The hell you want? You two change your minds? Wanna come crawling back to your unit?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. Good captain. Flair for the dramatic.

“Nah. You’re just the only military guy I can call. We’re on vacation in Indiana right now. A UN MT-50 delivery omnic was shot down sometime last night. We’re pretty good, but considering there’s two of us, the omnic is in a corn field, and we have no idea who wants this information…”

“I understand.” The captain said, voice instantly swapping to serious. “I’ll contact my superiors. Are the delivery contents still in the omnic?”

Oh. Right.

“Let us check. Gonna pocket you for a sec.”

He tucked away his phone, motioned Jack forward. 

“We should probably see if anything’s even inside.”

In retrospect, it made a lot more sense for the contents to have been stolen soon after impact— likely hours ago.

Sure enough, whatever was being delivered was gone.

As Gabriel explained the bad news to the Captain, Jack began to mess with the omnic. When Gabriel finally hung up, Jack motioned him back over.

“Gabe. It’s still… alive. Or running, I guess.”

Gabriel set his hand back down on it. Sure enough, there was a very faint hum he hadn’t caught before in his haste.

“Huh. That’s good. Maybe it knows who took it. Anyways, a US ship from Indianapolis is heading this way on behalf of the UN. Should be here within half an hour, max.”

“Great. Good. Alright.” Jack stood. “Neither of us are engineers, so there isn’t much we can do to help it. I guess we wait.”

And wait they did, for twenty-eight minutes, up against the omnic with pistols at the ready. Luckily, nothing happened— or maybe unluckily. It’d been a while since he’d gotten in some handgun practice.

The US ship, pretty big, at first tried to land in the corn. Jack had waved it away, forcing it to land on the dirt strip. It crushed more fences, but that was better than a huge patch of corn, Jack said. Extra fencing was easier to come by than months of growing time.

A uniformed man approached them. 

“Reyes and Morrison, I presume?”

Gabriel nodded. “Reyes.” He gestured towards the corn where the omnic was hidden. “There it is. Already looted by the time we arrived.” As they spoke, Jack’s father rode up and hopped off, strode to meet them.

The man, a lieutenant commander as his badges indicated, sent John a critical stare. “Can I help you, sir?”

John glanced around. “This is my property. Can I ask what’s going on?”

“Official business, sir. Possibly confidential.” The lieutenant turned briskly back to Gabriel and Jack.

“And what were you two doing here?”

“Visiting.” Jack said. “Spent my childhood here. We got some time off.”

“Both of you? And you just happened to stumble on this… mess?”

“Yeah.” Gabriel said. “That covers it.”

The man sighed. “Listen, it’s just, I have to cover the bases. You two work for the UN, so you know how they can be.”

Jack sighed, a hint of an exasperated smile appearing. “Yeah."

The lieutenant rolled his eyes. “It’s great. So just bear with me, okay?”

John stepped forward. “Anything I need to do about this?”

“I’m sure there’s a form you can fill out online for compensation.” The lieutenant said. “We’ll snap pictures of the damage and email you a report number to file it under. Please go back to your home, sir.”

John frowned. Gestured to Gabriel and Jack.

“What about them?”

“They’re armed UN soldiers, sir. They have to answer a few questions. Shouldn’t take too much time.”

When they went back to the house later, they found everybody in the living room.

“Things should be fine now.” Jack said as they entered. “They swept the land. No sign of any suspicious people.”

“What in the world happened?” Jack’s mother said. “Your father said the UN came, and your brother said there was an omnic crash-“

Jack waved his hand. “It’s not a huge deal. Terrorists, or maybe some other group, shot down a UN transport bot. They took whatever was inside and left. It was likely a coincidence it happened here. Some soldiers took care of it on behalf of the UN.”

Gabriel nodded in agreement, but didn’t bother to say anything.

“Did you help them?” Kenneth asked, seeming more curious than trying to be rude.

“Help them sweep?” Jack shrugged. “Nah. We’re off-duty. It wouldn’t be allowed, and in any case, we don’t really have our equipment. A handgun and some cloth doesn’t do much against a possibly heavily armed and trained terrorist group.”

Jack’s mother visibly paled. “I see.”

“Anyways, it’s over now. Don’t worry.” Gabriel said.

“Yeah.” Jack said. “Oh, and by the way, Ma, we’re going to visit Ethan tonight. I think we’ll have dinner there.”

Visiting Ethan was… awkward, to say the least. At least for Gabriel.

It was a small house, but definitely one that had been planned for some family. Two bedrooms, Ethan said, with plans set aside for additions as needed. A good amount of acreage, though not enough to really farm. As with most people who lived in that area, there was a decent sized garden out back that few various sorts of vegetables and fruits, as well as two goats and two sheep. There was also room for cows, of course, Ethan mentioned while glancing over at Jack.

Besides the normal, there was a large, spread out flower garden dotted with apiaries. It seemed that his main export and form of income was honey. It sold to organic stores across Indiana and a couple nearby states, apparently.

What Ethan seemed the most proud of though was the observatory. The building seemed to have been built mostly by hand, though the telescope couldn’t have been cheap.

Well. No. Even the telescope looked neatly handmade, through the lenses seemed high-quality. And the lenses were the most important part, Ethan had said.

To be honest, Gabriel felt a distinct hint of jealousy. After an initial period of awkwardness, the two had quickly began to chat like the old friends they were; talking about what each had been up to over the years. Gabriel mostly trailed behind, Jack shooting him an apologetic glance or smile every few minutes.

He did his best not to mind. Ethan had Jack for up to one week. He had Jack until one of them was shot and killed. 

Or just maybe, however unlikely, old age.

The pot roast finished eventually, which at least moved them to the table.

“So, why honey of all things?” Jack asked as they all began to eat.

Ethan shrugged. “Honey and flowers are two things nobody in the town produced in high quantities. There was a niche that needed filled.” He hesitated. “I do have a bit of a sweet-tooth. You remember.”

Jack laughed. “I do. So does Gabe, actually.”

Ethan glanced over to Gabriel with that same startled expression as before. “Oh! Right! Is that so? I’m so sorry, I just realized I haven’t really spoken to you!”

Maybe it had been unintentional. It was possible that the guy wasn’t passive-aggressive, but just a real doofus.

“‘S fine.” He said. “I’m not your childhood friend.”

“Still, it was very rude of me. A friend of Jack’s is a friend of mine! Oh! Here!” Ethan lept up and dug around in a drawer, pulled out a small baggie.

Gabriel took the proffered bag. It was filled with small, tan, round objects.

“You have a sweet tooth too, right? Honey candies! I made them myself. Take them! I have so many. Please.”

“Uh… thanks.” He took one, popped it in his mouth, and pocketed the rest.

They were, admittedly, very good. Like a honey-flavored Werthers. Was that whiskey? Maybe the guy wasn’t so bad.

“They’re good.” He said, realizing he should say something else.

Ethan beamed again. “Thank you! I’m glad you like them. Oh, so how did you two even become friends?”

He _was_ a nice guy, Gabriel admitted, though as naïve and dorky as Jack had said.

“He wouldn’t stop bothering me.” Gabriel teased.

“I appealed to his love of chocolate.” Jack teased back.

“Bribery.” Gabriel shot.

“Bribery.” Jack agreed.

They laughed. Ethan seemed a bit taken aback, then smiled. “I’m glad you guys have each other’s backs out there. I have to admit, the thought of you going into all of those dangerous situations scares me, Jackie.”

Gabriel bit his tongue against the surge of resentment. That was _his_ thing.

_No. They were friends long before I was in the picture._

The logic, unfortunately, didn’t really do anything to allay his annoyance. _Jackie._

Jack raised an eyebrow, curious smile in place. “Don’t worry about me. Gabe and I are top soldiers. As long as we stick together, we can get through anything.”

“That’s good.” Ethan hesitated. “You mentioned something about… a new dangerous thing, earlier?”

“Oh.” Jack scratched the back of his head. “Yeah. Gabe and I were recruited into this program. It’s, uh, technically super classified, so don’t tell anyone. It’s some soldier enhancement thing. They said it was going to be pretty dangerous, but, I mean, Gabe and I can handle it if we’re together. Probably.”

Ethan didn’t seem as if he knew which part to handle first. “Jack… you don’t need to keep throwing yourself into more and more dangerous situations. You’re already away from your family. You have people that care about you. Please don’t do anything… rash. And, um, I know that this is besides the very serious point… but… you’re going to become Captain America. Really? I know you still have that pillow I got you.”

Jack laughed. “Oh fuck you, I’ve heard that joke a hundred times from Gabe. _No_ I don’t want to be- I wouldn’t be _anything_ like- we don’t even know what the program is! Yeah. Also. I have the shield pillow still.” Jack’s smile faded. “And Ethan, I’m not doing this to get further away from this town or my family. I’m-“ Jack hesitated.

_Following me._ They both knew that Jack wasn’t particularly ambitious. If Gabriel had decided to deny the opportunity, then Jack would’ve as well.

“-doing it because of opportunity. Self-betterment and whatnot.” Jack finished lamely. “I’m not being reckless. I know my limits. I’m a pretty good soldier.”

“Pretty good soldiers die all the time.” Ethan whispered, staring at his food. He sounded as if he were about to cry.

“Oh, Ethan- come on.” Jack said leaning across the table to pat his childhood friend on the shoulder. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

They went back to the farmhouse about an hour later. 

The next day

As they sat at the breakfast table, Gabriel scrolled through his phone at the new movie releases. He’d always been into film, so existing so far away from a cinema, hell, even a large TV, was miserable.

“The next Farsighter movie just came out.” He mentioned wistfully as he glanced through the numerous mixed reviews. Spoiler-free, of course.

“Huh.” Jack finished the bacon he’d been working on. “Well, how about we go into town today and watch it?”

Gabriel jerked his head up. “What?”

“We do have a cinema. Like most modern cinemas, it can pretty much get any new releases. We can get a smaller room there and watch it.”

“Seriously? That would be so sweet!” He said, trying to control his visible excitement. He’d been waiting for the final movie of the trilogy for two years.

“Duh. We aren’t _savages_.” Jack scoffed. He leaned onto the back legs of his chair, twisted his head to see his mother. “Hey, Ma. Need anything from town?”

Amy didn’t turn from her baking. “No thank you, honey.”

Jack flopped the chair back down. “Dad? Kenneth?”

“No.” John said. “Tell Mrs. Hale I said hello, though. She runs the Cinema.” He mentioned to Gabriel.

_Fuck him._ If Gabriel hadn’t heard the truth from Jack, he would’ve liked John Morrison quite a bit. He just had that amiable, sincere nature that drew people in.

Bullshit.

Though to be fair, even if Jack didn’t realize it, he’d inherited that particular trait.

Kenneth hesitated. “If you want, you can pick up a toy or treat for Rebecca. May endear you to her a bit more. Kids, right?”

Jack snorted. “Sure. We’ll be back later, then. See you guys.”

They took the ATVs almost thirty miles down the packed dirt path, through the usual corn and between some more grazing land.

The town was… not exactly impressive. There were a handful of shops, two bars, a tiny church, a cinema, a park, and a dozen or two houses of varying sizes scattered around. Despite some of the buildings’ apparent age, they all seemed to be kept in excellent condition. It may have been small, but the town was certainly loved and cared for. Apparently the Morrison family wasn’t alone in the pride for their home and land.

Gabriel had to admit, it was a lot different than he’d imagined towns like this. He supposed it had been all the movies he’d seen, but he’d figured it would be all hicks and half-ruined buildings and a lot of alcoholics.

Well. The last part hadn’t been ruled out yet.

“Nice.” He said as they parked near the edge of town.

“Expecting something else?”

“Yeah.” He said, watching with growing amusement as Jack walked away from the ATV-- not even bothering to take the keys out of the ignition.

_That explains so much. They really don’t have thefts here, do they?_ God, Jack had been so _naïve_ about so many things. Gabriel had taken him out to the city nearby the base for some drinks, early on in their friendship once he’d learned that Jack had somehow never gone to the city. To _any_ city. 

After walking around for some time, they’d gone to a bar. Jack had walked away to talk to some people, then left his beer on some random bar counter while he’d gone to the restroom. It was a good thing Gabriel had been keeping an eye on him, because it wasn’t ten seconds before somebody tried to dose Jack’s drink. Gabriel had probably gone overboard on what he’d done to the guy. In retrospect, he’d probably already fallen for Jack at that point, far before he realized it. 

Then, of course, he’d bitched at Jack for twenty minutes about his idiocy and dragged him back to base.

And that was just a long, long line of situations like that. Such as the time Jack had stopped to talk to muggers before the muggers stopped them.

Sure, it had _worked_. The teens had been too stunned to go through with it. Didn’t mean it wasn’t a stupid fucking thing to do.

He shuddered. Jack was an amazing soldier, and the naïveté didn’t extend to the battlefield- but even now, he was pretty sure Jack walking alone into any major city was a death sentence. Or worse. 

“Cinema first?” Jack asked as they walked through what passed for a Main Street. The road was nice, at least, even though it obviously hadn’t been built for any large vehicles.

“Sure. That movie is in the top three most urgently needed things in my life.”

Jack cast him a curious smile. “The others?”

“The blowjob you promised me days ago, and seeing Grandma.” 

“Aww, you’re so sweet.” Jack teased. “And hey. I never specified how I’d make it up to you.” Jack paused, gaze traveling up and down him again. “Could be even better.”

“Well, now I’m counting on it.”

The cinema. It was old-fashioned, of course, but Gabriel almost liked it more than the giant ones in LA. This one had a legitimate feel to it; with the hundreds of classic movie posters around, painted murals of famous movie scenes, and an old-timey popcorn-making stand.

Who was he kidding? The place was amazing.

Jack must’ve noticed his expression, because he felt an affectionate hand brush through his slowly lengthening hair.

“Glad we found one place you like, Gabe.”

“The bit with all the berry patches was alright.” He deadpanned.

And the shade under the apple tree, of course, where Jack had fallen asleep on his shoulder. But he couldn’t say that.

_I’m not a good person. Things like that…_

He shut out the thoughts, smiled back instead. He hated how Jack nearly made him think better of himself sometimes. Good people didn’t become generals and leaders and commanders, after all. People who thought they were good even less.

“As I live and breathe! Is that Jack Morrison?” An astonished voice broke free from the hallway, its origin a plump, older lady striding to meet them.

“Hey, Mrs. Hale! Nice to see you! Yeah, it’s just me. Dad says hi.” Jack mentioned dutifully.

“Ah, of course. Now, who might this handsome young man be? Did little Jack bring home a date?”

Jack rolled his eyes with the usual good-natured smile, scratched the back of his head. “This is Gabriel, from my squad in the unit I worked in. We’re… um, that would be… against regulations.”

Mrs. Hale winked. “Ooh, I see. Well, what are you doing back? It’s been a few years! I remember you and Ethan used to come see movies. Usually the cheesy ones. Or the superhero ones. I remember you saw Captain America eighteen times in one-”

Jack blushed. “Right!” He hurried. “Just back for a visit! Gabe is really into movies. One just came out that he really wants to see. Is there an open room?”

“A few!” Mrs. Hale hummed, going behind the counter. “There’s an empty seven-seater. Room number two. What movie?”

Jack gestured to him.

“The third Farsighter movie.” Gabriel said. “It-“

“Came our last night!” Mrs. Hale seemed delighted. “The critics may be, well, critical, but I think the Farsighter movies are a masterpiece. Green Hollimer is a genius of a director- I mean, after The Great Old Yellow, how could anybody doubt him?”

Gabriel was floored. “Yeah! I mean, the symbolism alone-“

He realized nearly an hour later that Jack had passed out asleep on the couch.

“Oh, shit.”

Mrs. Hale shook her head and smiled. “You’re a lovely young man.” She went behind the counter, dug up a big bag and filled it with popcorn. “Here. No charge.”

Gabriel blinked. “Oh, you don’t have to-“

“Oh, it’s fine! I don’t get a good conversation about film very often. Not since my wife passed away.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” He said.

“No, no. Just… take good care of Jack, will you? He’s… well. I’m sure you know.”

He nodded.

“Good! Thank you.” She handed him the popcorn, a bottle of water, and a large, thick woolen blanket. It had probably been handmade by some farmer or whatever nearby. “Go ahead and go to room two, young man. I’ll have the movie ready in five minutes.”

He woke Jack up, pulled him to the room, and flopped down in the front row. The chairs were nice,if close, and even lay back quite a bit. Jack glanced around, then immediately took the blanket, wrapped it around them, and snuggled in.

Gabriel went a step farther, pulled Jack half-into his lap. “Nice lady.”

“She’s great.” Jack said sleepily. “I knew you two would get along. You’re so cute when you start talking about movies.”

He shrugged, suddenly a bit self-conscious. “Hobby.” He said lamely.

“I like seeing you happy. You’re so good at hiding it, but when it comes to movies, you just can’t help but get so excited.”

“Whatever.” He said.

Jack giggled, rested his head on Gabriel’s shoulder. “Cute.”

The movie was just as incredible as everything else the director had done. He appreciated Jack’s efforts to stay awake, but didn’t really mind. It wasn’t exactly public, but they didn’t really get to do this in front of a big screen. Ever. It was tiring, hiding whatever it was they had. Even if they didn’t _really_ hide outside of base.

They went out after the movie, where Jack paid for the film. Gabriel spoke with Mrs. Hale, promised to come see her again, then left before Jack could fall back asleep on the lobby couch.

For someone that woke up on his own at the crack of dawn _every_ morning without a hint of trouble or tired, he certainly slept a lot.

Supposedly a farm thing. ‘Oh, on the farm, you learn to get in sleep where and when you can’. Yeah, whatever Jack.

Fuck was Gabriel envious.

Once back in the bright outdoors, they chatted and walked through the streets. Jack mentioned stories about times he’d hung out in town while Gabriel listened and looked through shop windows. A lot of farming supplies, clothing, and some food, but not really much else. He supposed the place wasn’t exactly a tourist destination. They stopped into one shop to pick up a candy bar for Jack’s niece, but there didn’t seem to be much to do otherwise.

“Well, there’s always the bar.” Jack said as they passed one of the two in town.

He glanced at his watch. “Jack. It’s not even three.”

Jack raised an eyebrow.

“Of course I’m down.”

The bar had a few people drinking. Two seemed chest-deep in strong liquor and depression, but the others seemed to be having a good time playing darts at the back. A ten-year-old sat in the corner, smacking away at a keyboard with a bored expression and a pile of math equations off to the side.

The bartender opened his mouth as they entered, but when he saw who it was, his eyes widened.

“Mister Joining the Military? Jack-Fucking-Morrison?”

The men playing darts, most in their forties or fifties, all turned around with similar shocked expressions.

_Fuck. I guess everybody really does know everybody. Well._

Jack waved. “Hey. Back for a visit. This is my friend from the squad. Gabriel.”

The bartender split a grin. “Ooh, poor Ethan. He’ll be so distraught.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Fuck off. He’s fine.”

One of the men at the back whistled. “The kid’s grown a mouth. How’s it shooting people?”

_Not the most polite question._

“Fine, I guess.” Jack said dryly. “How’s the wif-- oh, right.”

The other men around the dartboard cheered, poking at the now-scowling asker of rude questions.

Jack chatted with them for a few minutes, then waved them off and pulled Gabe over to sit down at the bar.

Out of habit, he had his ID ready.

“No, son.” The bartender pushed his ID back. “Those tags around yer’ neck are proof enough you’re of age. What’ll it be?”

Gabriel scanned the back wall. “I guess some of that whiskey there. Neat.”

The man chuckled. “Kids these days. Vodka, Jack?”

Gabriel turned to stare at Jack, incredulous. “You told him to say that.” He accused.

Jack rolled his eyes, elbowed him. “I did not. I _told_ you that I drank a lot when I was younger!”

“Downing local corn vodka around some fucking bonfire, yeah. Yeah _right._ If that’s true, why the hell are you absolutely sloshed after two beers?”

Jack shrugged weakly. “I stopped drinking when I made my decision to join the military. Sixteen or seventeen. My tolerance never came back.” Jack reddened, obviously remembering the now uproariously-laughing bartender was still there. “I’ll have a hard cider I guess. Oh fuck _off.”_ Jack snapped as the bartender wiped away a tear.

As they left the bar, they bumped into a gaggle of men about their age about to head inside.

The men stared at them.

They stared back.

Then the men began to scream and leap forward to shake and pester Jack, who had a resigned smile in place.

“Guys! Come on!” Jack protested, trying and failing to shove them off.

Gabriel watched, amused, as the greetings continued.

“I’m just _visiting_!” Jack finally protested after a while, managing to duck out of the group’s embrace.

“Just visiting?” One man scoffed. “Why? You’re so good that they actually give you time off?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “It’s the UN. And actually, I suppose that’s accurate. Yeah. Gabe and I are that good.”

The group turned to him. “Just about to ask about him.” Another, younger one commented. “Friend?”

He nodded. “Name’s Gabriel. Jack and I were in the same squad.”

“And why’d he bring you… oh.”

The group all glanced around at each other.

“Huh.” One said. “Have you, uh, seen Ethan yet, Jack? Oh, nice to meet you by the way.”

Jack winced. “Yeah. We visited his place.”

The group hesitated a moment longer, then went back to the chaos.

“Sorry Gabe.” Jack said as couple guys ducked inside the bar. “These are my old friends. Roy, Lance, Moonshine, Wesley, and Darry. Roy and Moonshine are inside. Roy is the taller one.” 

_Moonshine? Really? I don’t even want to know if that’s even a nickname._

“Nice to meet you.” Gabriel said as the other two popped back out, 24-packs of some locally produced beer in hand.

“Hopefully.” Wesley said. “We were gonna go hit up the pavilion in the park and enjoy the summer. You two wanna join? We have the beer. Just bring your sweet selves and some cool military stories.”

Jack glanced over to him. “Any arguments?”

“Oh, but we have so _much_ planned for today.” He said, lacing just the right of sarcasm into his voice.

“Alright.” Jack laughed. “We’re in.”

The park at the edge of town was nice, mostly covered by a large wood-and-steel structure and placed near the woods that met the far end of the park’s boundaries. The guys threw the beers into a cooler, turned it in, and grabbed some backs of snacks out of the bags they carried.

“Celebrating something?” Jack asked.

“Nah.” Moonshine said. “Just enjoying some free time. Most of us married. Some even have kids, including me. There’s not a lot of time to get together anymore, so we make do.”

“Holy shit.” Jack’s jaw dropped. “You sound… mature. And adult. And you have a _kid_?”

“That I do.” Moonshine grabbed a cooled beer, cracked it and handed it to Gabriel, then did the same for Jack and himself. “So, what did you even do in the military? Your... buddy said you were in the same unit.”

Jack took a swig. “Until about a week ago, Gabriel and I were in the S-squad of the UN’s anti-terrorism unit.”

The five all glanced around at each other again. It happened a lot. “That’s…” one trailed off.

“What’s the S-squad?” Another asked.

Jack hesitated.

“It’s the elite unit.” Gabriel offered. “We took on the more dangerous and important attacks.”

“Seriously?” Roy said.

“Yup.” Jack confirmed. “Great squad. Great captain. Met Gabe. I already miss it.”

“Well, why’d you leave?” Wesley asked.

“That’s, uh, classified. I guess. We’re going into a program we aren’t allowed to talk about.” Jack said.

“That sounds dangerous.” Moonshine said. “I mean. Taking terrorists down is dangerous too, I guess. What do I know?”

“Nothing.” Roy interrupted with a grin.

Over the next two or so hours, the little gathering morphed into a full party of well over a dozen people. That was probably an amazing turnout for a town of its size.

_I bet half the town is here_.

Gabriel didn’t like parties without any stake in them. He could walk around and talk to people who were important, try to make connections, but things like this…

He was greeted and questioned by many people, but eventually began to skulk near the edge of the trees to escape it all. Jack was busy talking with a large group; likely trying to answer another hundred questions about what he’d been up to.

After a while of watching and sipping away at his third beer, a dark-haired man, perhaps around thirty, with pale blue eyes wandered up to him.

“So, you must be the Gabriel everybody is talking about.” The man said, stopping beside him.

Gabriel grunted.

“I don’t mean to bother you.” The man said. “Just trying to get away from the crowd for a minute. So, you knew Jack in the unit or squad or whatever it is?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Yeah. We generally teamed up during missions.”

The man nodded. “Nice. I heard you two were a thing? I guess it makes sense, considering he brought you to Indiana.”

“That would be against regulations.” He dismissed.

“Well, I don’t know why little Jackie would bring you here otherwise. He doesn’t like this town much.” The man said softly.

_Jackie._ A few things clicked in his mind. His jaw tightened.

“You must be-“

Jack appeared beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder and pulling him back a few steps.

“Get the fuck out of here, Finn.”

Finn raised an eyebrow. “Unlike you, I still live here. It’s a bit rude to ask me to leave, isn’t it?”

Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Finn interrupted. “I wasn’t talking to you, anyhow. I was talking to your friend here.”

Gabriel didn’t like his eyes. Their color, so pale they were nearly white, only accentuated the lack of humanity in them. Gabriel had seen those sorts of eyes before, on the people he’d shot for the UN. Men that murdered innocent men, women, and children, blew up buildings and took hostages and slaughtered the families of diplomats. Not only terrorists, but always that sort of person.

_I guess this is what happens when somebody like that is born in a town like this. They find the most vulnerable person around and hurt them. Jack was an easy target, and if he was anything like he is today, probably a bright kid. A satisfying target._

Thinking about this man, thinking about that little kid in the picture with the messy hair and the missing-toothed smile, made Gabriel sick. He wasn’t a good person, yeah, but he sure as hell wasn't a monster like this.

He wondered which part to hit first, and how many he could get in before others tried to stop him.

Jack seemed to sense what he was thinking, tightened his grip on Gabriel’s shoulder.

“Bother him again and I’ll knock another one of your goddamn teeth out.” Jack snapped.

Finn frowned. “I had to get a replacement. I even lied about what happened to me for you, you know, even though it wasn’t very polite of you. I suppose, considering your violent tendencies, it made sense for you to join the military. I bet there’s quite a few people there like you.”

Jack took a deep breath. “You-“

“Jack and I actually work in the Anti-Terrorism Unit for the UN, in the Elite Squad.” Gabriel said, keeping his voice carefully neutral for now. “We’re not exactly infantry. The mayor of Prague herself thanked us a little over a year ago for stopping a sixteen-block explosion and taking out the people who set up the bombs.”

Jack shot him a puzzled glance.

Finn didn’t seem particularly impressed. “Is that so?”

Gabriel took out his phone, showed him the picture of the squad in Prague standing before the mayor.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I forget. I suppose you don’t know what Prague is.” Gabriel deadpanned.

“I grew up here too.” Jack muttered. “Same online school.”

Gabriel ignored him.

“I don’t follow.” Finn said.

“Our profession is generally pretty well-liked.” Gabriel said. “We have time off now because we’re currently heading into a classified UN program. Dangerous, supposedly.”

Finn’s deeply unsettling eyes narrowed. “And?”

“People love us. We’re some of the best in the military. Our superiors want to keep anything about us hushed, considering what we’re about to get ourselves into. Nobody would listen to or care about some schmuck in a tiny village in Indiana if he, per se, complained about the two of us dragging him into the woods at a party and beating the shit out of him.”

Finn seemed to realize that they really were at the edge of the woods, and nobody seemed to be paying them any attention in the quickly settling gloom of evening.

Gabriel moved behind Jack. “Well? What do you say?” He whispered, resting an arm over Jack’s shoulder to lay across his chest.

Jack was silent for a long moment. “He’s not worth the effort.” He finally said.

“Okay, you’ve said the socially acceptable thing. Now what do you really want to do?”

“...not look another second at his fucking face.”

Gabriel hummed. “You can always close your eyes. It’s not like he’d be a challenge.”

_Come on. Just let yourself step away from perfect for once._

“I…” Jack smiled. Glanced around. “Well, we can't get _too_ carried away.” Jack murmured into his ear. “But… we can at the very least scare the hell out of him.”

He wasn’t difficult to drag away. They’d had a lot of practice taking down those a lot better trained than none. 

It was dark when they finally went back to the party.

“Where’d you guys go?” Moonshine asked.

Gabriel was in a far better mood than before. He always enjoyed giving people what they deserved. 

“Off.” He said vaguely as Jack glanced back to the woods with a grin.

“Ah…” Moonshine wiggled his eyebrows. “Well, Ethan stopped by, but he has sick bees, so he went back with medicine early.”

_Sick bees? Is that a thing?_

Apparently that was a thing.

“I hope it doesn’t spread.” Jack mused.

“I guess that’s why he was so eager to take care of it.”

Gabriel figured being a bit rude was nothing compared to what they’d just done.

“I meant to ask, is that a nickname?”

Moonshine chuckled. “Yeah. Real name is Theodore. Don’t think I’ve been called that since I was three.”

They remained at the party for another two hours, then headed back for the farmhouse. It was dark, and Jack was pretty hammered, so Gabriel made him sit in the front of one of the ATVs. He figured they could go back for the other in the morning.

He’d had more than a few as well, but he could hold his liquor- unlike Jack, who drank two or three lightweight beers and began to giggle at an alarming rate.

He still didn’t believe Jack had used to down large quantities of corn vodka. 

Even though they were adults and everyone was asleep, Jack still drunkenly insisted on climbing up the side of the three, almost four-story building. Gabriel had no choice but to acquise. He watched Jack nimbly make his way up the side, somehow just as capable of the feat while drunk.

It was even more impressive now, frankly.

A moment after Jack got through the window, a long rope ladder fell out to _thunk_ onto the roof of the first floor, which was considerably larger than the top two and attic. 

_Well. Alright._

He’d done alright in the climbing portions of the training courses at the base, but Jack had always beat everyone by a mile. It took him almost as long to get into the first roof as it did for Jack to make it to his bedroom window.

The rope ladder, of course, sped things up a little.

Gabriel tumbled into the bed in Jack’s room, sprawling atop the giggling fool and refusing to move.

After he was pushed off, he watched as Jack pulled up and rolled the ladder, then opened a hidden hatch in the side of the bed and stuffed it in.

“Snuck out a lot, huh?”

“More’n you know.” Jack flopped back onto Gabriel, wiggled himself into a comfortable position, and dragged blankets on top of them.

“Treehouse?”

“Mm. Yeah. And another place. A secret place.”

“Keeping secrets?”

“Yeah. Never showed nobody.” Jack pressed his face into Gabriel’s shoulder. “I’ll show you though, ‘course.”

“I’m honored.” He said dryly.

“Y’ should be.” Jack said, then fell asleep.

Gabriel, being his insomniatic self, was not so lucky. He settled in to imagine the future instead.

When he woke up the next morning, he was absolutely astounded. Not only was Jack still curled up in his arms, but Gabriel had _woken up first_. This was the only time he could ever remember it happening.

He glanced at the watch still on his wrist, shifted in his uncomfortable clothes. Ten. 

_When’s the last time Jack woke up after 6?_

He didn’t know. Still, he wasn’t about to get up and ruin it— the longer it went on, the longer he could hold it over Jack’s head.

He settled for running a hand through Jack’s messy golden hair, browsing the news on his phone with the other.

_Let’s see. Omnic unrest. Omnic unrest. Oh look! More Omnic unrest. Attempted assassination of some Omnic monk. There’s going to be war if this keeps up._

The thought chilled him to the bone.

_Anything cheerful? Oh. A dog saved a three-year old from drowning in the river. That’s… cool, I guess. The Panama Canal has been repaired…_

About ten minutes later he heard a creak, and then Jack’s father appeared in the doorway before he could move. 

_Why doesn’t he have a door at the top of the stairs instead of the bottom? Both, maybe? I was so absorbed in this garbage news…_

Jack’s father shook off the speechlessness that had apparently taken hold of him.

“Sorry to… interrupt. Jack wasn’t answering his phone. Wasn’t sure if you two boys made it in last night.”

“We did.” 

John was frowning at Jack. “I can see that. Well, I just wanted to ask if you two had any plans today. It’s scarecrow season. If you’re interested, Gabriel, you can help decorate a scarecrow for the fields. John always loved it growing up.”

“Uh, I guess I’ll ask him when he wakes up. Do fields still need scarecrows?”

“No, we have other methods. It’s still a town tradition. Speaking of the town, the doc said that Finnley came bleeding to his office this morning.”

“Finnley?”

Jack’s father hummed. “Don’t pretend. Took John long enough. Lunch is in about an hour and a half.”

Then, John Morrison went back downstairs.

_He knew. He knew and didn’t say a fucking word. Didn’t even try to help. Are you kidding me? His preteen son was being raped by a kid seven or eight years older, and he didn’t raise a fucking finger._

This town was a nightmare. There may have been a few decent people around, but it seemed everybody else was content to stay silent and pretend nothing was wrong. 

Jack woke up not a minute later, yawned and rubbed his eyes.

“Mm.”

“Morning.”

Jack jumped. “Oh! Gabe! You’re- oh my god, what time is it?”

“Past ten.” He said gleefully, ruffling through and making an even greater mess of Jack’s hair.

“Oh fuck.”

“Relax. You needed the sleep. How’s the head?”

“Fine! You?”

“Fine. But I wasn’t hammered.”

“You know me. I don’t get hungover.”

_Ugh._ Another one of Jack’s stupid superpowers. 

He decided to tell Jack what’d happened- minus the last bit, or course. His father was _so_ -

He sighed. 

“Mm?” Jack inquired, nestling back into Gabriel’s arms.

“Your dad came in a second ago. Said you weren’t answering your phone; was checking to see if we’d made it in.”

Jack froze midway through moving his head back to Gabriel’s neck. “Is that so? Were we still…?”

“Pretty much the same as this, I guess. But seriously. It’s not like we were really trying to hide it, at least here.”

“Yeah. I just- Well. Nevermind. What did he want?”

“Just what?”

“Geez. Nothing, Gabe.”

“Uh-huh. That’s what you said the first dozen times.”

“You don’t give up, do you?”

“No.”

Jack rolled away, leaving Gabriel bereft of the previous addictive warmth. 

“Dad’s just weird. Always said I was free to date, as long as I was doing the dating.”

“I have literally zero idea what that’s supposed to mean.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it. I basically figured out that he meant, er, how do I put this? He caught Ethan and I sitting together under the treehouse. I was kinda in his lap. My dad yelled at me when I got home. I figured it was because, I dunno, it was too close to sexual? I was sixteen, so it seemed iffy. Turns out he was just bitching because Ethan should’ve been in _my_ lap.”

“What the fuck, Jack.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“What _year_ is it? 2010? He’s alright if you’re with a guy as long as you’re the _man_?”

“God, I don’t think it’s like that— I mean, I’m sure he’d bitch just as much if I was with a woman and doing the same thing. I dunno, okay? He’s just insufferable.”

“Your dad is invested in you being a top.”

“Gabe! Shut up! This is why I don’t tell-- oh, just tell me what he even wanted!”

He smothered his laugh, soothed Jack and coaxed him closer again, pulled him back into his arms.

“He wanted to know if we were down to make some scarecrows or something. Said you loved it when you were a kid.”

Jack flopped his head black on the pillow. “We can if you want.”

“What do you even do?”

“Get old clothes. Get hay. Stuff clothes. Get more hay. Make hay tubes. Bind hay together. Stuff into arm and leg holes. Accessorize. Stuff it on a long stick.”

“You had me at accessorize.”

Jack rolled his eyes, but at least the indulgent smile was back. “Alright.”

They went out to the town square, where a massive festival of maybe thirty people was taking place. He and Jack teamed up to make a scarecrow; Jack with his know-how, and he with his actually existing sense of fashion.

Seriously. The town was bereft.

“Not to brag, but we definitely made the best one.” He said when they were done.

It was barely past two after, so they went to go visit the secret place Jack had teased earlier.

“You still haven’t shown me your treehouse.” Gabriel mentioned as they began the walk from the farmhouse.

“Nope. Soon enough, Gabe.”

“Any hints on where we’re going now?”

“No, but for the fact it’s a bit more than a half-mile away.”

As they went, they jumped a creek and passed through a large patch of trees that extended out and eventually met the forest. About five minutes into the trees, they broke into a decent-sized glade.

It was absolutely picturesque. The golden grass flowing gently in the breeze, the trees surrounding the patch of open blue sky, the sun shafts filtering through the leaves and sky to rest on the wildflowers-

The wildflowers caught his eye the most by far.

“Gabe?” Jack turned, already ten steps ahead

Gabriel knelt in the field, gently touching the petals of the one nearest to him.

Long stemmed, roundish, with purple centers and numerous slivers of petal that radiated outward; a brilliant shade of blue that matched Jack’s eyes exactly.

Exactly.

“These are beautiful.” He heard himself say.

Jack knelt beside him, and Gabriel saw that he’d been right. Exactly the same.

“Aren’t they?”

“What are they called?”

He had a new favorite flower. Roses were a timeless classic, of course, but these…

“Cornflowers.”

He couldn’t help it; burst into hysterical laughter and nearly lost his balance.

When he finally managed to regain his composure, wiping tears from his eyes, he looked up to see Jack staring at him with a mixture of exasperation, worry, and confusion.

“I don’t get it.” Jack said, folding his arms in defense.

“C-Cornflo-“ he fought through another fit of giggles. “Cornflower. Everything’s fucking corn. Even the flowers. This is ridiculous. I thought you were kidding!”

Jack cracked a smile. “No, they’re cornflowers. Beautiful little things.”

Gabriel picked one, held it up beside Jack’s head. “They’re gorgeous. They match your eyes exactly. I love them.”

Jack flushed. “You’re insufferable.”

“Cornflowers. Yeah. That suits it. Suits you. It’s perfect.”

Jack rolled his eyes, dragged Gabriel up and began to pull him away.

Gabriel carefully said the flower he’d picked into a pocket, making sure not to crush any of the petals. It had been perfect. He wasn’t about to destroy it— like the man it reminded him so deeply of.

The destination wasn’t far from there, and though it was initially a disappointment, he soon remembered again that Jack was something else.

“Here we are!” Jack said, excited.

He glanced around. They were on a steep slope of a hidden dip in the flat plane of Indiana. It had likely once held another creek.

There was nothing around. Just trees, grass, and what was possibly another fox that darted away before he could be sure.

“Great.” He said.

Jack shot him a withering glance, then turned and began to inspect a large bush on the slope. He pulled it back to reveal a dark hole in the earth; some sort of tunnel that led deeper into the slope.

“I mean here.”

Gabriel stared at the hole.

“Uh…”

“Come on!” Jack gestured him in.

“Fuck no.”

“Fine. I’ll go first.” Jack rolled his eyes and maneuvered around the side of the bush, entering the hole and disappearing into the blackness.

_Fuck me._

Gabriel pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and followed.

It opened up a bit more inside, but he had to stoop most of the way. It sloped down a good twenty meters, during which the dirt quickly became rock.

“Nice murder cave.” He said as they went.

“Thanks.”

Eventually, they stopped at a… wooden door? It was small; shaped to fit the entire passage.

“Did you make this?” He asked.

“Yup.” Jack began to poke at the door that was just beginning to rust at the hinges, eventually pulling it open. It was darker inside. Jack went in, fumbled around a bit, and then the area behind the door lit up.

The cave was far more open within, tall enough to stand with a few feet of spare room and about twenty by forty feet wide, with a relatively flat stone floor. Well. If the rugs hadn’t been there.

It was basically a rec room. Besides the rugs, there were a couple beanbags, a set of wooden drawers, a sleeping bag, a table with board games and a deck of cards, and more posters on the wall. Two were Captain America. Along the ceiling were hooks with battery powered lanterns, all strung together with wires that led to a button on the wall near the door Jack had fumbled with earlier. It was actually amazing.

“You did all this? Alone?”

“Yeah. I found it when I was five or six. It was a great place to hide from my brother and his friends. It started out with only a sleeping bag I dragged in here, but as I grew older, I started to really make this place neat. I finished the lighting when I was twelve… oh, that’s when Ethan caught me heading up here. I showed him then.”

“So I’m not the only person you’ve shown.”

“Well. There’s not much you can do when he’s like, ‘Hey Jack, why are you crawling into that bush at age twelve?’. So. I mean. I guess it counts.”

Gabriel walked around, peering at the various objects and poking at the board games. He eventually caught sight of something on the walls at the far end of the room.

“Yeah.” Jack said, following his eyes. “That’s the coolest part.”

Gabriel raised his fingers to brush at the wall. On this untouched side, there were little… paintings. Some were the size of his arm, but most were smaller. They looked ancient, with darker colors and childlike styles.

“Are these…?”

Jack pressed up against Gabriel’s back, looped arms around his stomach and rested his chin on Gabriel’s shoulder.

“Yep. Native American cave paintings.”

“Woah.”

“Indiana got its name for a reason, you know. Thousands of caves, and tons with paintings like this.”

“Shouldn’t you, like, I dunno. Tell somebody? Archeologists?”

He felt Jack shrug.

“Didn’t want them trampling all over our land and messing up one of my few safe places.”

“Fair.”

“They have enough paintings to examine. Maybe in a decade or something I’ll tell them about this, but I dunno.”

“I doubt there’s anything special to learn from it anyways.”

Jack hummed, began to pull him away from the wall and back to the main area.

“The paintings are one of the reasons I decided the place was safe. I figured no flash floods could get in here and drown me if those paintings survived a few hundred or thousand years or whatever.”

Fuck, Gabriel wouldn’t have even thought of that. 

He allowed himself to be pulled onto a beanbag; not really big enough for the both of them, but they made do.

“Wanna play a board game?” Jack murmured into his ear after a few minutes.

“Sure.”

As Jack set up the board game, Gabriel browsed around the room a bit more. As he wandered around looking at posters and things, he decided to look at the chest of drawers.

“How’d you get this thing in here? Hell, how did you get the table in here?”

Jack shot him a confused look. “What do you mean? I didn’t. I brought some lumber and nails and tools and things. Put it together here.”

“Didn’t realize you were a goddamn carpenter.”

“Eh, I was better when I was young.”

He opened the first drawer. More board games, some dice, and a D&D set. Ancient-- from _2012_. 5th edition. 

“Let me guess. Ethan?” He held up one of the books.

“Yeah. _He_ was the nerd.” 

Gabe opened the second drawer, which was stuffed so full of comic books that he almost couldn’t get it open. He held one up, eyebrow raised.

Jack scowled. “Comic books _aren’t_ nerdy! That’s pop culture!”

“Maybe in _2016._ ” He scoffed, failing to shut the overflowing drawer again.

The third drawer held a smattering of different things. Aforementioned tools, pressed flowers, a _really_ old tupperware of cookies, a painted rock shaped like a triangle, and a few rolled-up posters that apparently hadn’t made the cut.

“Messy.” He said.

“Shut up.” Jack muttered, concentrating. He seemed to be having trouble putting two bits of the plastic gameboard together. The particular piece seemed broken, jerry-rigged with a rubber band, but not particularly stable. 

Gabriel moved back to the middle drawer, began to sort through some of the comics. A lot of Captain America, some old Avengers, the Flash, Green Lantern, Sandman, The Swamp Thing, Constantine, Batman, Spider-Man- hell, Jack had a collection going. He was almost impressed.

“I didn’t see a store in the town.” He said.

“Nah. Some I got online, others were given to me by an older man who lived in town. He died a few years back. I have the rest of his collection in boxes under my bed.”

“Nice guy.”

“Yeah.”

He was about to stuff the comics he’d taken out back into the drawer, but the corner of something with thicker plastic caught his eye.

_No way._ He pulled it out into the light. 

As he jerked his head up to look at Jack, a hint of realization entered those blue eyes.

“Gabe, wanna come help me with this?”

“It’s too late, Jack. I found them.”

He pulled out the magazines just as Jack tackled him down onto the carpet.

“Get out of my drawers!”

“Geez! The internet’s been a thing for a while, you know.” Gabriel teased, waving the copy of _Men_ around beside them. There was a pretty graphic, if early 2010’s, picture of a man giving a blowjob on the front.

“Shut up!” Jack snapped. 

If Gabriel had thought his face was red before- Well. 

“I guess comics aren’t your only-“

“You shouldn’t be going through- I mean those drawers weren’t yours to look through- that wasn’t- they were a _gift!_ ” Jack finally settled on, an attempt at keeping his dignity.

Considering he looked as if he’d gone headfirst into a bucket of red paint, it didn’t work.

“A _gift_? Oh, sure it was.”

“It was! I didn’t- I mean, I wouldn’t- I knew how to browse the internet, thank you very much. Ethan went to Indianapolis when he was seventeen. He’s a year older, went to go pick up a new telescope with his dad or something. When he got back, he said he’d bought me a present. He handed _those_ to me, and then laughed at my expression and gave me a new poster instead. So _there_.”

The story only made Gabriel laugh harder, until he was struggling to breathe. 

Jack took the opportunity to snatch away the magazines and stuff them back in the drawer, slamming it shut and going to moodily finish up the board game.

“You didn’t even-“ Gabriel held in another fit of laughter. “-throw it away.”

“No! That would’ve been- I mean, it was a gift- people would _see_ it in the trash, or the compost-“

Eventually, his breathing returned to normal.

“Are you _done_?” Jack asked sullenly, shoving a gamepiece into his hands.

“Not for long.”

About halfway through their game, Jack spoke up again. His face was, oddly enough, beginning to return to its earlier red state.

“You know.” Jack said conversationally. “This _is_ where I gave my first blowjob.”

Gabriel nearly choked on the blackberry he’d popped into his mouth. 

“Is that so?” He managed to say.

Jack shot him a sly glance. “Yeah. Well. Consenting at least." He laughed.

Gabriel's jaw tightened. "That's not funny."

"...No." Jack said. "I suppose it isn't."

Silence. The atmosphere eventually settled back down.

Jack moved his piece. “I imagine I’ve gotten a lot better since then.”

Gabriel moved his. “What with all the practice.”

Jack rolled his eyes, but Gabriel could tell he was hiding a grin. He moved his piece.

“It’s only fair to test.” Jack said.

Gabriel thought out his next move. “You’re just trying to distract me.” He accused. “I know your ploy, Morrison.”

“On the contrary. If you win this match, you’ll find out.”

The luck turned against him, and Jack was _very_ close to winning when he pulled a risky move and sacrificed two of his pieces. The win seemed to catch Jack by surprise. 

“You’ve played before?”

Gabriel snorted. “No.”

“Tactical bastard.”

He leaned back in his chair. “I won, Jackie.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “So you did.”

“I believe you said something about that?”

Jack rose from his chair, moved around the table. “I think I vaguely recall mentioning something of the sort.” He said.

He moved to pull Jack into his lap, but instead found himself being dragged up and shoved onto one of the beanbags. Instead of replying he relaxed into it, resting his elbows on the sides and spreading his legs _just_ wide enough that Jack glanced down and swallowed.

And yet, remained rooted in place.

_Always so unsure_. 

Gabriel hooked his foot around Jack’s leg, jerked it so Jack tumbled onto his lap with a squawk of indignation.

“Insufferable.” Jack whispered, before sliding his fingers into Gabriel’s hair with an iron grip and kissing him as if his life depended on it. 

He struggled to pull off his shirt as Jack began to mouth at his neck, refusing to give Gabriel any room as his lips and teeth met and teased the soft flesh.

When he finally managed to toss his shirt away, Jack gave a final delicate bite and moved on to his chest, peppering his many scars with kisses and dragging his fingers to press along the muscle of his torso. 

“Ever told you how handsome you are?” Jack murmured between kisses that went lower each time.

“I can tell, seeing how eager you are to get to my cock.” He joked, finally turning the tide as he managed to tangle his fingers in Jack’s golden hair, rub a thumb across his cheek.

That one earned him a particularly hard bite, the sting soon soothed by the swipe of a tongue.

Jack gave a deep groan as Gabriel tugged his hair in reproach, _finally_ moved down to fumble with the buttons on Gabriel’s shorts.

Once free, Jack shoved them down in haste, moving to lick a long stripe up the black fabric of the rapidly expanding bulge in his briefs.

He thought about poking more fun at Jack’s desperation, but that thought quickly disappeared as Jack continued to mouth, and left his cock straining to escape.

He moved his hand down to free himself, but Jack caught his hand and sent that same devilish glance up— something that just made him choke back another moan and tighten the grip of his other hand in Jack’s hair.

After apparently making Gabriel suffer as much as he deserved, Jack slowly pulled down Gabriel’s underwear and pressed a gentle kiss to the side of his shaft. The kiss quickly devolved into Jack sliding the flat of his tongue down the length of his cock, slow enough for Gabriel to bite his lip and force down a curse, move his free hand back to rest on Jack’s head. 

The beanbag made for an awkward angle, but Jack made the best of it as he finally took Gabriel into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the sensitive skin as he slowly went deeper and deeper.

Gabriel was torn between keeping his hands firmly in place and moving one to his mouth to stifle the moan. He settled for keeping his hands in place— the sound Jack made when he pulled was something he didn’t want to lose.

He tugged, hard, to prove his own point, and Jack’s moan was so broken that it nearly sent him over the edge as the vibrations went up his shaft.

“God, Jack.” He whispered.

Jack hummed around him, just making the growing tightness a little worse.

He jerked Jack’s head up, forcing him to pop off of Gabriel’s cock with red, swollen lips, glistening with precum.

“Look at me.” He commanded.

Jack rolled his perfect blue eyes, cheeks growing the same color as his lips, but obediently kept his eyes fastened to Gabriel’s face as he took him in again, swallowing around him until Gabriel had to actively resist against fucking into his throat.

_Not today. Maybe sometime this week._ He gave a laugh that morphed into another moan halfway through.

Looking down at Jack, eyes blown with lust and cock in his eager mouth- it was the exact opposite of that morning, when Jack had sleepily rubbed the side of his face against Gabriel’s stubble, murmuring something about the detriments of waking up after seven.

Before he’d met Jack, he would’ve wondered why anybody would even care for the latter. Now, the idea of a sex-only relationship- even sex as good as it was-- depressed him. Whether or not he admitted it, he’d begun to live for moments like this morning.

Not that he didn’t fully appreciate this. As Jack’s tongue teased his slit, swirling around to suck at the head-- 

Yeah.

He didn’t warn Jack— catching him off-guard and seeing the slight look of surprise morph to annoyance, the look on his face as he struggled to swallow and usually only partially succeed.

“You’re a _dick_.” Jack said as he pulled off, the slightest grin on his face as he used his thumb to wipe the single pearly dribble that had escaped.

“Says the one choking on it a second ago.” He replied, hooking Jack by the collar of his shirt and pulling him close.

Jack popped his thumb into his mouth, drew off slowly with that _fucking_ look in his eyes. It was almost enough to make Gabriel hard again.

“Warning would be _nice_.” Jack said for the thousandth time.

“You like it.” He teased, maneuvering Jack into his lap and running soft hands under his shirt.

Jack only gave a _hmph_ in response, settling in to rest his head on Gabriel’s shoulder.

“Gonna let me return the favor?”

Jack turned his head, gently bit the shell of Gabriel’s ear. “No. But you’d bet I’m gonna fuck you tonight.”

“You mean I’m gonna fuck you.” Gabriel snorted.

Jack grinned against his stubble, moved down to press a kiss to his neck. “Says you.”

“Says _you_. ‘Oh, fuck me, Gabe!’”

“I do _not_ sound like that!” Jack smacked his shoulder. 

As they laughed, an uncomfortable thought struck him. They’d gone through that little joke more times than he could count, ever since the beginning, but now… He’d thought it was an ironic play off of military masculinity or whatever, but considering how Jack’s father acted… 

He pushed aside those thoughts. He’d had enough fucking psychological nonsense for the day.

They eventually settled down, Jack resting half-against him and half-dozing.

“Jack?”

“Mm?”

“Are you okay here?”

Jack gave a slow sigh, didn’t raise his head. “I’m not fucking delicate, you know.”

_I know. You took a bullet for me in Austria, cracked a joke for my benefit while I was trying to hold you together._

“I just… want to make sure you’re okay.” He said, running a gentle hand through Jack’s hair.

_Must be sore. I pulled hard._

He got back on topic.

“I _am_ okay. You’d know if I wasn’t.”

“Exactly. I know. Jack, I- I love you. I just don’t like seeing you in so much pain.”

Jack finally moved, sat up and turned to face him.

“Am I complaining too much or something?” Jack half-snapped. “I _know_ I’m showing weakness, and I _know_ it’s pathetic, and I _know_ -“

“Shut up.” Gabriel said. “You know full well you’re not being _weak_ or _pathetic_.”

_He doesn’t._ Gabriel realized as he saw the look on Jack’s face.

“In fact, I think you’re doing incredibly well for somebody who decided to walk back into the town that held the worst memories of his life.”

Jack scoffed, thumped his head back onto Gabriel’s shoulder. “Whatever. My worst memory isn’t here anyhow.”

“It’s not?”

“You almost died in New York, Gabe. If that knife had been a centimeter closer to your artery-”

Jack shuddered.

Yeah. The ATU hadn’t been all fun and games for either of them.

They were both silent for a good ten minutes, slowly relaxing again after what had amounted to a tiny spat.

“Not- not to say I don't… appreciate it.” Jack said awkwardly, refusing to look at him. “Your, care, that is. I’m just, bitching I guess. A bit... defensive.”

“It’s understandable.”

Jack sighed.

“Any horrible childhood secrets on your end? I’d feel a bit better if I could try to comfort you as well. Uh, not that I hope you’ve gone through anything like… you know. Sorry.”

Gabriel snorted. “Nah. Nothing like this. I broke a lot of laws, but I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about.”

“No. Can’t wait to meet your Grandma, though.”

“Oh, trust me, you’re not alone. She’s always, ‘oh, so when do I get to meet your Jack?’ and ‘you’d better get married before I kick the bucket’.”

Jack threw him a startled look. “Did she really say that?”

“Yeah. Ever seen Napoleon Dynamite?”

“...no?”

“Jesus. I was going to do a bit of a metaphor, but it’s useless around you.”

“Uh…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll show you all the movies I know someday.” He said.

“Oh. Good.” Jack said, deflating.

More silence.

“Gabe?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think we’re going to make it out of this?”

“What? This SEP thing we’re about to head into?”

“Yeah.”

Gabriel tilted his head to press a kiss to Jack’s cheek.

“We’ll be in there together, Jackie. Don’t worry. We’re a team.”

Jack nodded. Nodded again. “A team. ‘Till one of us takes the wrong bullet.”

They spent the next few days around town, exploring places and climbing dilapidated old barns and visiting old haunts and doing odd jobs around the farm. It was mostly just the two of them, but they occasionally met and chatted with people Jack had known. 

The afternoon of their eighth day in town, he and Jack stopped to relax in Jack's attic bedroom after a long walk through the fields. Gabriel was still in awe of the multitude of wildflowers- especially the cornflowers. He had the perfect one, the first he’d seen, safe on the dresser. 

They’d come up the climbing-and-ladder route, of course. 

Why wouldn’t they.

“Wanna drink this evening?” Jack asked, flopping down onto the bed they shared.

“Sure.”

“There’s a bonfire tonight. It’ll be just like old times.” Jack said. “Well. My old times. I’ll have to snag some local vodka.”

“You have no taste.”

“It was easy and got me wasted. I was a teenager.”

“Yeah. And now you drink fruity shit and ciders.”

“Don’t think I don’t catch you stealing sips of my strawberry daiquiris, Mr. Sweet-Tooth.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’m going to go grab some of those cookies your mom left downstairs. Want one?”

“Sure. Just make sure she isn’t there, otherwise you’ll be trapped in a conversation for the next twenty minutes of your life.”

“Duly noted. Mission start.”

He went down the many flights of stars, wove through various rooms and paused at the kitchen door to listen for Amy’s voice.

He didn’t hear Amy, but he did hear a phone ring, and Jack’s father answer.

“Hello?”

-

“Oh, Cora! It’s so nice to hear from you. How’s work?”

-

“Fantastic. And your new apartment?”

-

“Well, then you’d better visit soon. Speaking of which- oh. Your mother told you? When?”

-

“Yeah, he’s still home.”

-

“Different. Very different. I hardly recognized him when I walked into the kitchen.”

-

“Well I didn’t mean _that._ He’s doing well for himself. I’m so proud of him.”

-

“Of course I wish he would’ve stayed. He’s my little boy. Still. He’s apparently in the _elite_ squad of some Anti-Terrorism unit for the UN. Incredible.”

-

“I know! He’s grown up so well. Apparently he’s quite the soldier, along with that young man he brought with him.”

-

“Yeah, you heard me right. Jack brought a guy with him. Gabriel. From the same unit.”

-

“I like him a lot, actually, though I’m not sure he feels the same.”

-

“Well, probably.”

-

“Listen, Cor. I did the best I could with him. John may not like me, but it’s worth it to see him grow up like he did. You think he’d have made it this far if I’d babied him?”

-

“Oh, don’t lecture me about your psychology courses. I’m seeing the results.”

-

“Well, I’m very proud of what he’s become. And you, of course.” Jack’s dad laughed. “My kids went three very different paths, and I’m very proud of all of you.”

-

Once all of the important bits of the call ended, Gabriel tapped the _end recording_ button on his watch.

Well now.

He retrieved the cookies and went upstairs, to where Jack was lounging on the bed on his phone.

“Get ‘em?”

In response, he shoved a cookie into Jack’s mouth, earning him a glare and some crumbs on his foot of bedspace.

After enough time and debate had passed, he leaned over to kiss Jack’s cheek.

“Your dad was on the phone downstairs. Talking to your sister, I think. I listened from behind the door.”

Jack gave a skeptical glare. “Why?”

“He started talking about you.”

“Oh.” Jack said coldly, jaw tightening. “I don’t care.”

“Well. It may not be what you think.”

He hit the play button. The sound was muffled, low-quality from being behind the door, but still good enough to hear.

As the recording played, Jack’s face grew darker and darker.

It ended.

“I’m not suggesting you care what he thinks.” Gabriel said cautiously. Jack’s expression wasn’t exactly in its usually bright state. “I just thought you might want to hear it.”

“Well, I _don't_ care. Fuck him. Fuck his- his-“

Jack burst into tears.

Maybe it had been a miscalculation.

Or maybe, he reflected later as he let Jack cry on his shoulder, it hadn’t. At least this way, Jack knew. Worse now, better later.

He didn’t know. This wasn’t exactly his area of expertise.

On their second-to-last day there, he and Jack went out to the orchards, sat under an apple tree and chatted. Every so often, Jack would climb up and get a fresh couple from the branches above.

“Corn, apples, and beef? You guys export a lot of stuff.” Gabriel said, taking a bite of one of the apples.

“Well, I mean, corn is the major export by far. The cider is only distributed to Indiana and a couple nearby states. As for the beef… it’s not. We export dairy to a few nearby cities. If cows die, then the beef doesn’t usually leave town.” Jack informed.

“Oh, here we go again.” Gabriel teased.

“Hey, you brought it up this time!”

“Cider. Is that why these apples are different?”

“Yeah. Cider apples aren’t much good for eating straight, but you get used to it.”

“Good thing neither of us are straight.”

Jack smacked him lightly on the shoulder, snickering.

About fifteen minutes later, there was a noise somewhere to their left. When he turned his head to look he saw Ethan standing there, frozen, a tiny box in his hands.

_Ah._ He and Jack were sitting under the treehouse, Jack mostly on his lap and Gabriel’s hand resting on the warm skin just under the cusp of his shirt, his chin on Jack’s shoulder. It didn’t get a lot more intimate than that.

“I- um.” Ethan took a step back, stuffed the box in his pocket as Jack turned his head. “Sorry to- Sorry to-“ He vanished back into the woods.

“What was Ethan doing here?” Jack was staring into the woods with a vaguely curious expression.

“Jack.”

“What?”

“He was going to propose to you.”

“ _What?”_

Gabriel huffed out a single laugh. “He was holding a ring box.”

Jack seemed horrified. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Sorry. Can’t. I guess he asked where you were, and maybe your mom or someone told him where we went. He came to propose, but when he saw us like this, the dense motherfucker probably realized what was actually up.”

“But that’s…” Jack sighed. “No. That sounds exactly like something he’d do. It’d work in his silly romance movies. Just when they’re about to leave and do something dangerous, you propose. They realize that all along they belonged with you. Cut scene.”

It wasn’t _in_ accurate. Movies weren’t perfect. Hallmark movies least of all.

“Yup. Poor kid.” Gabriel waved it off. “Maybe he’ll get over it now.”

Jack didn’t seem so sure. “I should go find him. Say something.”

“He’ll just assume you’ve changed your mind.” Gabriel said. “Just drop it.”

“But…” Jack trailed off, staring in the direction Ethan had gone. After a long moment, he settled further into Gabriel’s arms and closed his eyes. “Maybe you’re right.”

He smiled, moving his hand a little farther up Jack’s stomach. _Serves the little fucker right, trying to take him from me._

They spent the rest of the day meandering around the Morrison land, hanging out with the cows, and climbing around long-abandoned barns in the middle of overgrown fields. Gabriel actually felt as if he were getting a lot more agile than if he’d been training at the course on base.

“Hey, Gabe!” Jack waved from the top of the barn, then motioned to the side. “This way!”

Gabriel stared at the next route. He was already halfway up on a ledge— maybe twenty feet in the air. The next supposed bit he had to climb… really didn’t have much to it, handholds or footholds. He would have to jump a bit when he got to the top.

Jack bent down. “Just be careful. If you can’t do it, don’t. I don’t want you airlifted to the hospital.”

“If you did it when you were eight, I think I can do it as an S-squad soldier. _Jack_.”

“Fine, fine. Eight-year-old me could totally outclimb you though.”

Gabriel didn’t doubt it.

He shook his head and grasped the first bit of old wood, wincing as it gave a menacing creek under his hand. _How old is this thing, again?_ He tested its weight, after all, Jack was lighter than him, and then began to climb. It wasn’t so bad for the most part, but that last bit, he did have to do a little hop to reach the top. If he’d missed, he’d have fallen thirty-odd feet to the packed earth and wildflowers below. 

_How the fuck did a little kid climb this? He’d be Assassins-Creed-ing it._

God that movie had sucked.

Jack caught his hand and pulled him up, till they were both resting on the gently sloped roof of the barn.

“How the hell did you climb this?” Gabriel complained, picking a splinter out of his thumb.

Jack shrugged. “Desperation, firstly. Then it was some pretty good fun.”

“Oh.” Gabriel winced. He’d had his share of bullies as a kid, but they’d been around his age, and easy to fuck up once it went too far.

“Hey.” Jack winked. “Come on.” He walked across the roof of the barn as if it were flat land, leaving Gabriel to scramble behind him. Jack opened a dirty old hatch, examined inside, then sat. He held onto the edge and tested his weight on whatever was inside and dropped. Gabriel followed soon after.

It was a ledge inside, looking out on the remainder of the barn.

“Used to be a hayloft.” Jack said, leaning against the wall.

“Huh.” Gabriel walked along the edge of the loft, halted when he caught sight of something shiny.

A metal ladder, reflecting the light filtering through strips of wood.

“Jack. Are you fucking kidding me?”

Jack shot him an innocent look. “Oh, right.”

“You bastard.”

“Hey!” Jack protested. “Don’t you feel like a badass though, now that you’ve climbed it for real?”

_Yes._

“Go to hell.”

Jack winked. “On it.”

_Fuck. I love him._

He sighed. “Why the hell’d you bring a ladder here, even?”

“I didn’t.” Jack snorted. “They couldn’t follow me up here, so they found it in an old shed outside.”

“Oh.”

“I suppose I _did_ do my best to piss them off from the roof.” Jack said with a fond grin. “They were so pissed that they almost threw me off when they managed to get up.”

“I don’t see how that’s funny.” He said.

Jack’s smile faded. “It’s not.”

But Gabriel didn’t doubt that Jack would get cocky in a position he thought was safe. On that mission in Sweden, Jack had double finger-gunned and winked at a terrorist who didn’t realize that Gabriel was behind him-- shotgun nearly pressed to his head. Gabriel had yelled at Jack after the fact of course, for dropping his guard. 

_I could’ve missed_. He’d said. _He’d have shot you._

Jack had just winked. _You wouldn’t miss._

He sighed without thinking.

“Sorry.” Jack said, obviously misinterpreting the sigh.

Gabriel didn’t correct him. “I just don’t like the thought of it.” He said instead.

“I don’t either.” Jack looked away, folding his arms and hunching his shoulders. “Whatever. Are you excited to head to L.A?”

He walked forward, pulled Jack’s hands free and kissed one. Jack gave a small smile.

“Yeah. Despite everything, I had a great time here. I’m going to be hard-pressed to give you as good of one.”

“I doubt that, with how you talk about your city.” Jack said, looping his arms around Gabriel’s waist and pulling him in close. “I’m sure it’ll be great. Visit your old haunts, do some beach stuff, meet your grandma and your friends. You did talk about them a bit, back in the ATU.”

“That I did.” He hesitated. _Do I really want them to meet Jack? They’re going to verbally destroy me when they see him. Especially after I made fun of people who dated blondes for so long…_

Yeah. But those blondes weren’t _Jack_ , now were they?

“And do I get to meet any Exes?” Jack asked, back to the falsely innocent, wide-eyed persona.

He rolled his eyes. “I hope not, but maybe. There’s a few.”

“Player.” Jack teased.

“None of them were ever serious, though.” He said. It was true. The first person he’d admitted to _loving_ was Jack.

“Touché. Anyways, we should head to the bonfire. We can help build it.” Jack said.

Gabriel took the ladder.

The bonfire, hyped up for years in the ATU, was a ring of ashes in the middle of a field near some woods. There were a few people, including some of Jack’s old friends, tossing sticks, bits of wood, dead corn husks, and hunks of long golden grass into the pit.

“This is it?” He asked.

“Yeah. Now get tossing.” Jack turned, found the largest bit of wood he could find, and heaved it into the pit.

It was dusk by the time the bonfire was finished, with well over a dozen people working on it by the end. Somebody brought a few cases of beer and a case of liqueur, mostly corn vodka, and a few people were already halfway wasted.

“What now?” Gabriel glanced around. Nobody seemed to be doing anything more than chatting.

“We’ll light it in, I dunno, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. Should be dark enough.” Jack said.

About twenty minutes later, a man of about thirty walked up to them.

“Hey, Jack. Hey, Jack’s boyfriend. Want to light the bonfire? You’re the first guest this town has had in a while.” He held out what looked like some sort of handmade bomb.

Gabriel hesitated. “Uh. I mean.”

Jack nudged him. “Go ahead! Just toss it in.”

Gabriel took the sphere. “Thanks, uh…”

“Roy. The man said. “This is my family’s land.”

“Nice to meet you.” Gabriel said.

He wasn’t a self-conscious sort of person, but it was still unnerving when half the town turned to him in sudden silence.

_Horror movie, much?_

He tossed the sphere into the pile, a perfect arc that ended in a _whoosh_ as it lit up instantly and with gusto.

Everyone went back to what they’d been doing. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Nice.” Jack teased.

“Whatever.” He said. He snagged a bottle of beer.

As the night went on, people got more and more drunk. A few teenagers got into the mix, but nobody seemed to mind.

Jack especially was probably three steps from alcohol poisoning. He’d grabbed a thing of corn vodka, said something about old times’ sake, and proceeded to chug a good third of it.

He was currently half-falling over with some of his old friends, Ethan hovering over him like a concerned mother hen.

Gabriel guessed. He didn’t know much about chickens.

He was content to have a few beers a decent ways away from the mess, surveying things and checking for… something, he supposed. It was a lot different than getting drunk in the city.

He never got _drunk_ , anyways. Not in public. He didn’t want to leave himself that vulnerable.

Gabriel eventually wandered over to a few logs that had been placed a decent ways away from the fire. There had been some people over here earlier, but they’d moved closer to the light about an hour ago. He noticed too late that there was one person remaining, and sat nearby before he realized it was Jack’s brother. There was a half-empty thing of liqueur in his hand.

They sat in silence. 

A few minutes later, the brother sighed.

“I’m sure Jack’s told you all about me.”

“Yeah. And I’d kick your ass here and now if you didn’t have kids.”

“Sounds right.” Kenneth said. It was too dark for Gabriel to see his expression, but he sounded drunk and numb.

After another long moment of silence, he spoke up again.

“Jack was always the favorite, you know. Dad adored him. Never said it to his face, maybe, but I knew. I was the one that stayed. Jack fucked off to join the military. Still, Jack was _always_ the favorite. Yeah, I was a horrible brother. I did a lot of fucked-up things.”

Gabriel didn’t say anything.

“Dad’s little brother died a year before Jack was born. I dunno how, but he always said it was because his parents spoiled him, as he was the baby of the family. Guess he didn’t want Jack to end up that way.” Kenneth downed another couple inches of liquor. “Stupid, really.”

It was stupid.

“You have no room to talk.” Gabriel said.

“I know. I’m actually surprised Jack hasn’t kicked my ass yet. He obviously can. He _did_ fuck up Finn, maybe with your help.”

“He had it. Didn’t need it.”

Kenneth continued to drink. “I guess that’s my greatest regret. Finn was my best friend. I hated Jack, since dad loved him more than me. I didn’t just let it happen; I encouraged it. I don’t know what I wanted. It’s pretty fucking unforgivable.” 

Gabriel took another sip, doing his best not to start throwing punches. _Talk about self-aware._

“I know you guys are leaving. Going to some dangerous thing. Even if you guys live, I doubt Jack will ever be back. He isn’t going to talk to me, and I doubt he’ll listen to any apology.” Kenneth said. “I just don’t want it to end like this, I guess. I don’t really deserve any reconciliation, but he is my brother. I want to try.”

“And why the hell do you think I care?” _Am I the only half-sober person here?_

Kenneth shrugged. “I don’t know. He obviously cares about you. Looks at you like he never even did Ethan. Never seen him smile like that before. Could you talk to him, I guess? See if he’d listen to me?”

Gabriel could help it; laughed aloud. “Fuck no. You can live with your guilt.” He said. He stood and left before Kenneth could get out another word.

The conversation put him in a dark mood, so he went over Jack and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Even though it was public, Jack didn’t pull away. He was too drunk. Instead, he turned his head to grin at Gabriel.

“Hey! Where y’ been?” Jack slurred, blue eyes slightly hazy.

“Around.” He said. 

“Lemme guess. Sulking around the edge of the light?” Jack giggled. “You’re so edgy. It’s cute.”

“It’s not cute. How much did you _drink_?”

“Not enough.” Jack said, going in for another swig. 

Gabriel deftly slid it out of Jack’s hands before he could take a gulp. “I think you’ve had enough.” He said, vaguely amused.

He ignored Jack’s whining, waiting till he’d said goodbye to everyone, then walked him back to the farmhouse. It was a long path through woods, plains, and corn, so Jack had a bit of time to sober up.

“Thanks for coming.” Jack murmured, pressing his side against Gabriel’s as they walked.

“Of course.”

“Still.” Jack sighed. “I saw you talking to my brother. I hope he didn’t bother you.” 

Gabriel weighed his options. “He said he hated you because you were your dad’s favorite. Your father’s little brother died a year before you were born, for some bullshit reason that he was spoiled as the youngest. Apparently that means child abuse is alright. Among other things, your brother regrets doing what he did to you as a child, and letting other things happen to you.” He finally decided on.

Jack was silent for a while. Then, “Dick.”

“Yeah.” Gabriel agreed.

They went to sleep soon after they arrived back.

On the morning of their last day in Indiana, the entire family gathered at the breakfast table for goodbyes. Kenneth seemed to be nursing a hangover, and wouldn’t look either of them in the eyes as he poked at his eggs.

“I’m going to miss you, honey.” Jack’s mom sighed. “You’re going to have to keep in-touch! We want to know what’s happening with you.”

Jack shrugged. “Alright. Though, we are about to head into that classified program. Could be over a year, and I doubt they’ll let us have our phones.”

She cast them a worried glance. “Is it really going to be that dangerous?”

“They said it was possible.” Gabriel said. He was ready to get on the road.

Jack’s father leaned back in his chair, folded his arms. “Just be careful, John. You’re young. Don’t waste your life.”

“It’s Jack.” Jack finally said. “Jack. Don’t call me John.”

John Morrison raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but it’s on our birth certificate. You know I’ve never been one for nicknames.”

“I don’t care.” Jack said. Gabriel could tell he was trying to remain relaxed, with how hard he was gripping his fork. “It’s. Jack.”

“You say that-“ Jack’s father began.

“The only reason I haven’t changed my name is because it’s too much work, and nobody else makes a big deal about it. If you call me John again, I _will_ do the paperwork to get it done. I’m sure they can process it before I go into the program.” Jack said.

The table was awkwardly silent.

“I don’t really see what the big deal is.” John finally said. “But alright. If you feel that strongly about it.”

Jack seemed a bit taken aback. “Thank you.”

Amy, seeking uncomfortable, smiled and hurried over to the fridge. She pulled out two paper bags and handed them to he and Jack.

“Lunches, with an extra slice of apple pie. If you give us an address later, honey, we can send some cider. Even if it’s in a few years.”

“Thanks.” Jack said.

John stood, checked his phone. “I have to get over to town for that harvest festival meeting. Kenneth, would you mind driving Jo- Jack and his… friend to the bus stop?”

“Sure.” Kenneth said, voice resigned.

Jack went for the back door. “I’ll be back in a bit. I have one last thing to do. You can stay here if you want, Gabe.”

“Uh, alright.” He said. Jack booked it in the direction of the livestock fields. Whatever they were called. Pastures?

Jack came back about half an hour later. They grabbed their things, hopped into what had to be one of the few trucks left on the planet with no self-driving capabilities, and left the farmhouse.

Kenneth was silent as the drive went on, only breaking into words as they approached the stop.

“You’re never going to be back, are you?” He asked Jack.

“Probably not.” Jack said.

“Why did you?”

“Wanted to show Gabe around.”

Kenneth shook his head. “You really are serious about him, then.”

He stopped by the worn sign.

“Jack.” Kenneth said.

Jack waited.

“I… I’m sorry. That’s all.” He said, then drove away with one door still open.

Jack glanced at Gabriel. Shrugged. “Fucking finally. I’m ready to get out of here.”

Gabriel rested his hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Was it worth it?”

“Yeah.” Jack said immediately. “I feel a lot better now, about some things. Closure for my family. Though I feel worse about… other things. Thanks for coming out with me.”

Gabriel hummed. “I had a good time. You were right. Everything but the people was pretty good. All the stupid apples and cows and corn and everything.

Jack’s smile was worth the admission.

As they settled down into the bus that took them to the tired green metal structure to wait for the train, he slipped his hand into Jack’s.

“What’d you go do before we left, anyways?”

Jack hesitated. “Went to see Annabelle. Figured it would be the last time I would ever see her alive, so I went to say goodbye.”

_He really loves that cow._

The train ride was uneventful.


	3. LA I, where Jack is terrified of Gabriel's grandmother for literally 0 reason

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of your amazing comments have inspired me more than anything else before! I'm working now on adding a new section into chapter 4, and I'm already 5k into my next story. Thank you all!  
> But anyways, here's LA! I actually spent a lot of time there in the summers growing up, since I had family there as well. I can attest to the crowds and amazing weather (and traffic, but it's the future and its all self-driving cars and stuff so).

As they finally neared L.A, Gabriel began to grow a little more comfortable. The familiar mountains, the skyscrapers approaching in the distance, the right amount of smog in the sky, the right types of trees— beautiful.

He nudged Jack, sleeping on his shoulder, awake.

“Hey. Jackie.”

“Mm?” Jack yawned, snuggled in closer and hugged his arm.

“We’re almost there.” 

Jack sat up instantly, turned to peer out the window. “Wow. Tall buildings. Where’s the ocean?”

A thought occurred to him. “Jack, have you ever _seen_ the ocean?”

Jack shot him a withering glare. “Gabriel, we’ve been to nearly every continent."

“Yeah. Military transport isn’t really known for having a great view. Anyways, I meant from ground level.”

“...no. Only from the sky. Too bad there haven’t been any attacks on ships or anything.”

Gabriel shrugged. “There have been. Just not S-squad worthy.”

Jack sighed. “Whatever. I’m excited! You’ve talked about how great it is for _so_ long.”

“And I’m right.”

The train pulled off at the edge of town, where they took a taxi to his grandma’s place.

It was so familiar, even after all those years, that it was almost disconcerting. The same old streets and amazing weather; not too hot, not too cold, and very little humidity. He loved LA.

It was late evening by the time they arrived at his old home; A small, one-story building at the end of a cracked street.

 _Grandma’s been busy._ He mused. The number of plants in the sandy, rock-decorated yard had now doubled, and the house itself had a relatively fresh coat of dull orange paint.

“Pretty.” Jack commented. He was looking over some sort of shrub.

“Sure.” Gabriel said absentmindedly. He folded his arms, staring at the house. It’d been a while since he’d last been here, of course, but he supposed he could still just walk right in. 

“You good?” Jack was suddenly beside him, a hint of concern in place.

“Yeah. Just wondering how to survive the next five minutes.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Grandma.”

“Oh.”

Gabriel walked over to the front door, unlocked it with the key under the terrible chupacabra sculpture he’d made when he was nine, and stepped in with Jack trailing behind.

“I’m home!” He called. Nothing.

“Is this how you felt?” Jack said from behind him.

“What?”

“Terrified, that is. Meeting your grandma. What if she doesn’t like me? It’s like meeting your, er, friend’s, parents. But concentrated. Because there’s only one. Completely hit or miss.”

“She’s going to love you.” Gabriel said, waving away Jack’s worries. “Relax. 

Jack didn’t seem convinced, still walking a few listless paces behind him as Gabriel headed through the house. It didn’t take long. Through the living room, into the kitchen, and out the back door.

His Grandmother was watering one of her weird plants. _Is that the kumquat tree? It’s certainly grown._

“Hey.” He said, standing before her with folded arms.

She finally looked up, adjusted her glasses. “Gabi! You’re finally here to visit. Be a dear and turn off the hose, would you?”

Gabriel obliged, another bit of disconcertion poking at his chest. He’d only been gone a few years, but she looked… older. He supposed it had to happen eventually.

 _Jack must still be inside._ He rolled his eyes. _He has nothing to worry about. He’s an angel._

“Come here!”

He turned around. Despite her diminishing form, she was as strong as ever with her hugs.

Hello, _Lita._ ‘S good to see you.” He said.

“Very.” She took a step back, folded her arms and examined him. “You look healthy. Good. Have you been eating well?”

He sighed. “Yes, _Lita_.”

“Don’t you sigh at me.” She looked around. “Well? Where’s this Jack you’ve gone on about?” 

“Inside. He’s nervous.”

“What for?” She tutted. “Don’t tell me you’ve been scaring him off with tales about me.”

“Nah. He’s just like that.”

“Well, introduce me! Gabi, I’m very happy you’ve found somebody.”

He snorted. _Yeah. I’m definitely home. The passive-aggressive ‘are you going to get married yet’ comments, the bluntness, the arguments._ He would never admit how much he’d missed being here.

“Alright, alright.” He said, but as they headed to the door, he hesitated. “ _Lita_?”

“Yes?” She tapped her foot, impatient,

“Jack. He’s… well. We just spent a few weeks at his childhood home.”

“You told me.” She said.

“Well, when I was there, I learned a few things. His childhood was absolutely _fucked_. His dad and brother… well. Horrible family. Probably never even felt his parents loved him. Could you…?”

His grandmother was set in a deep frown by this point. “Of course, Gabi. Leave it to me.”

“Thanks.”

She peered at him. “You actually care about this one.”

Gabriel shrugged, suddenly self-conscious again. “I guess.”

She pushed ahead of him and went inside. 

Jack was leaning against the kitchen counter when they entered, his grandmother’s ancient, fuzzy, grumpy cat relaxing in his arms and _purring_. Fucking purring. The idiot cat that had only ever adored his grandmother; had fucking scratched and bit the hell out of he and his friends his whole life, and now five minutes after walking into the house, Jack had befriended it.

Jack almost dropped the cat, jolting upright as they came back in. The cat leapt gracefully from his arms, turned its nose up at Gabriel and left.

Figured.

“It seems that _gruñón_ has taken a liking to you.” His grandmother said. “You must be Jack! Gabi has told me so much about you.”

“I, um, it’s nice to meet, um, nice to meet you.” Jack said, stumbling over his words and holding out his hand.

 _He really is nervous about this._ Gabriel wasn’t sure if he should be amused or vaguely concerned. _He’s usually so good with people. So much easy charisma. Natural likability. I guess this is what happens when he feels as if he really needs to try._

His grandmother bypassed the handshake, going on for a hug that Jack returned with taken-aback reluctance and a terrified glance at Gabriel.

“Oh, no need to be so formal! Call me _Lita_.” His grandmother soothed. “You’re just as handsome as he described.”

Jack reddened. “I, um.”

She turned back to Gabriel. “Do you want to put your things away, Gabi? You two seem hungry.”

“Sure. Thanks.”

“Well, you know where your room is.” She hesitated. “I’m very glad you’re alright. You do worry an old woman so.”

“Sorry. It’s my job.” He said.

She gave a _hmph._ “It’s your job to worry your _abuelita_?”

“Third line. Right before the terrorist killing bit.” He deadpanned.

She shook her head, smacked his shoulder and prodded him in the direction of the hallway. “Go!”

He left, Jack close behind.

**\- Jack -**

He took a deep breath as Gabriel shut the door behind them, trying to right his brain. _I think I fucked up. Stuttering idiot. It’s his grandma, not, like… the UN Council or something._

“Jackie. Hey. Relax.” Gabriel murmured. Jack felt stubble brush the side of his face as Gabriel moved in from behind to press a kiss to his neck.

“I am relaxed.” He lied.

“Nice joke. But really, it’s okay. She’s not going to hit you with her-- er, she’s going to love you. Promise.” Gabriel huffed out a laugh.

It didn’t really do much to allay Jack’s worries. If she ended up not liking him… well, Gabriel obviously loved his Grandma quite a bit. If she didn’t like him, maybe Gabe would come to his senses and leave Jack for somebody better. He was already astounded that Gabriel could stand to look at him after everything that happened at the farmstead. _He’s really just too good. He can do better. That’s what I should want._ But Jack was selfish. 

He shoved those thoughts aside for now, decided to look around instead.

 _Revenge. He has to have something around._ He thought mournfully, recalling the teasing of the posters in his room- not to mention the scene in the cave. _Later._

He turned around, examining Gabriel’s childhood bedroom.

Disappointing. Gabriel must’ve cleaned it of childhood before he’d left, because it didn’t have a lot to it. A twin bed in the corner with black and white sheets, dark walls, mismatched wood and metal furniture, a few framed movie posters from the 2000’s, 2010’s, and 2020’s, a shelf of little knickknacks, and a tall bookcase absolutely filled with movie cases to the point of being a danger. A photograph sitting on the bedside table caught his eye.

He walked over and took a look. Gabriel, who had to be about twelve, and his grandmother. They were standing on a beach somewhere, ice creams in hand. Gabriel’s smile was bright.

_He looks so happy. So does she._

It was an adorable photo. Gabriel wasn’t even wearing any black in it. 

“You were such a cute kid.” He commented.

Gabriel glanced over at the photo. “Birthday. Twelve. Day out at the beach. Couple rides at the pier.”

“The pier?”

“Santa Monica Pier.” Gabriel moved his intense gaze to Jack’s face. “I’ll take you there. ‘S nice. Ferris wheel. Roller Coaster.”

“Oh! I’ve always wanted to ride a Ferris wheel.”

“Well, it’s your lucky… 10-12 days?” Gabriel hesitated. “Yeah. We can do it as many times as we want.”

Jack raised an eyebrow.

“Anyways, I’m gonna take a shower.” Gabriel finished. “Care to join me?”

He hummed, pretending to think about it. He would _never_ give up the chance in reality— and Gabriel knew it, shoving him against the wall and tilting his head up to force him to stare into those deep, golden eyes.

“Well?”

Jack let his fingers trail across the waist pressed to his. “Might as well.” He said slowly. “Let me grab something to change into. Are we going out tonight?”

Gabriel released him with one last brush of his thumb on Jack’s cheek. “Fuck, I’m dead tired. I’m ready to go to bed, unless you have anything to say about it.”

“Sounds good to me.” He said. He pushed away from the wall and unzipped his duffel bag, revealing- a mess of ruined clothes.

“Hey. _Gabriel_.”

“What’s up?” Gabe was fucking around with his own bag on the bed.

“You know the lotion you asked me to carry?”

“Yeah?”

“It spilled _everywhere._ All of my clothes are fucked!”

Gabriel’s head snapped up. “Hey! That stuff was expensive.” He complained.

“My _clothes_! The hell didn’t you cap it for?”

“I _did_ cap it. What, were you throwing your bag around the whole trip or something?”

“Ugh.” He picked up the half-empty thing of lotion with two fingers, held it out. “Just take it, you monster. There’s some left.”

Gabriel took it, glanced into his bag. “Wow. Well, we can do some laundry tomorrow. You can wear some of my clothes for now.”

 _Great._ He sighed. 

“Don’t bitch. I have good taste.” Gabriel said. He threw open his closet, revealing a mess of dark colors.

Most of it was a bit big for him, but he found a decent band t-shirt and some basketball shorts to wear. 

_Great. What’s his grandma going to think?_

He heard a squeak and the sound of running water, so he folded tonight’s clothes and went to the adjacent bathroom; Shut the door behind him to lean against it.

The bathroom was just as clean as the bedroom— almost militarily sparse.

“How young were you when you decided on military?” He asked.

Gabe glanced up from his toiletry organization. “I dunno. Ten? Why?”

“Just curious.” Jack said. He set the clothes on the counter. “Worked out for you, I guess. You’re amazing.”

“You don’t have to flatter me, Morrison. I’m already in your bed.” Gabriel laughed. “I mean, you’re in mine.” 

Jack tilted his head down, shook it to hide his smile. “I take it back. You’re the worst.”

“No take-backs. My ego can’t handle it.” Gabriel joked.

When Jack lifted his head again, he saw that Gabriel was in the process of pulling his shirt over his head.

 _Fuck, he’s so good-looking._ Jack let his gaze linger as inch after inch of dark skin was revealed, muscles and scars and all. He was daydreaming about what he wanted to do with all of that exposed skin when he was startled by said shirt, thrown to smack him in the face.

“Like what you see?” Gabriel asked from across the bathroom. His tone was laced with sarcasm, but the look in his eyes was dark in all the right ways.

“Absolutely.” Jack murmured, back to staring.

“Well, then get your fucking clothes off and get in the shower.” Gabriel ordered. 

Jack obliged, not even bothering to make sure his shirt hit the counter before he hopped in after Gabriel.

“I’m cold.” Gabriel complained.

“You’re the one in the hot water!”

“I’m still cold.”

“You’re _always_ cold.” Jack resisted a smile, reached out to finally drag his fingertips along the muscle of Gabriel’s chest.

“Not helping.” Gabriel muttered.

“Oh?”

Before Gabriel could stop him, Jack reached up and grabbed the showerhead, pulled it off the hook and aimed it to spray directly at his startled face.

“Hey!” Gabriel grabbed for the showerhead, managed to snag the thick water pipe that attached the head to the supply.

“I’m just-“ Jack wrestled with him, managed to tug it out of Gabe’s hands and aim it at him again. “-trying to warm you up!”

“You’re dead, Morrison.” Gabriel switched tactics, nabbed a thing of shampoo off of the ledge and squirted it in his general direction.

Jack twisted to avoid getting it in his eyes, in the process loosened his grip- and felt it tugged out of his hands.

“No!”

“Too late, Jack!” Gabriel crowed.

“Bet you feel a bit warmer now, though.” He said.

“Until you brought it to my attention again.” 

Jack wiped the shampoo off of his chest and the side of his head, rubbed it into his hair instead.

“We’re adults.” He said.

Gabriel didn’t even deign to respond, just sent a half-insulted glare his way and handed him the showerhead.

“Supposedly.” Gabriel said after a while.

Later, as he was grabbing the clothes off the bathroom counter, a hand encircled his wrist and forced him to drop the shirt.

He glanced up. Raised an eyebrow. 

“Shower sex sucks.” Gabriel said.

“...yeah?” They’d done it before. Almost fucking given both of them a concussion. 

“Good thing we’re not in the shower.”

And then Jack was shoved around with force, chest pressed against the counter, with one arm twisted lightly behind his back and another hand tugging his head up by the hair.

In the reflection of the mirror, he could see Gabriel grinning- and glancing over Jack’s face with the barest hint of hesitation.

_I knew I shouldn’t have taken him to Indiana. Is this permanent now? I’m not delicate, and I’m not going to start-_

Gabriel jerked his head up to further arch his back, leaned in. 

“I’m going to fuck you until you’re _begging_ for more of my cock.” Gabriel murmured into his ear, voice dark.

Jack’s breath hitched— it was almost shameful how much that turned him on, evidenced by his own swelling length trapped against the counter.

“So much for being tired.” He managed to say. He tried to shift to alleviate the pressure- but Gabriel just shoved him harder against the fake, plasticky stone and chuckled; so deep and low in his throat that it made Jack shiver. Or maybe it was the grinding press of Gabriel’s cock against his ass.

“You won’t be joking very long, Morrison.”

He swallowed, allowing his head to drop as Gabriel released the controlling grip on his hair. Anything else he might’ve said died in his throat as he heard a familiar noise, and then two fingers pressed against him.

Gabriel halted, the slightest bit of pressure remaining. “Well? No witty comment?” He teased.

Jack swallowed again, more thickly this time. “Go to h-“ He inhaled sharply as a slick finger pressed its way into him without preamble, soon followed by a second.

He tried to move his arm to bite his wrist— drown out the little noises he had to be making as Gabriel fucked him open— but the hand that had been pinning his twisted arm to his back slid up his torso, wrapped around the back of his neck and shoved him down to knock his head against the counter and hold him there.

All too soon the fingers retracted, leaving him feeling empty. He tested to see if the grip on his neck had loosened as well, but it was a no-go. Then something far thicker was pressing up against him.

Annoyingly enough, that’s where it remained.

He felt Gabriel’s other hand trace around his waist, dip down to caress his inner thigh.

Jack shifted, and Gabriel tightened his grip again. Pressed in a teasing half-inch, then halted again.

“Gabe.” He complained, annoyed at his own breathless voice.

“Oh?”

Jack could almost hear Gabriel’s mildly evil smile.

“You want something, Jackie?”

Decidedly evil smile.

He shifted again, clenched his teeth.

The hand traced back up, around his leg to ghost up his length just enough to make his breath stop. He tried to push back, get it _in_ him and stop the fucking teasing, but Gabriel shoved him forward again.

“Come on, Morrison, I want to hear you say it.” Gabriel said.

He ground his teeth. “Fucking- I- god, just- fuck me, Gabe! Come on!”

Gabriel waited.

“You’re the _worst_.” He said.

“That didn’t sound like a please to me.”

“I-“ He jolted as Gabriel gently dragged the pads of his fingers up his cock. “ _Please_ , just fuck me already!”

The hand around his length retracting, moving to grip at his waist, was all the warning he got before Gabriel thrust into him, burying himself to the hilt in one smooth movement.

Jack wasn’t proud of the sound he made, but his hands were too busy holding him up to move them to cover his mouth.

After only minimal time to adjust, Gabriel began to fuck him with relentless purpose; one hand still keeping him roughly pinned by the neck, and the other gripping his waist hard enough to leave bruises. The thought sent a wave of twisted warmth spreading through his chest. He _hated_ the thought, but fuck did it turn him on. 

And Gabriel knew it, whispering horribly dirty promises into his ear as he did his best to hold on. He wanted to fuck back into it, to get his hands on Gabriel’s dark, handsome body, to kiss him, to do _anything_ — but he was trapped in place by those rough hands, unable to even get to his painfully weeping cock trapped under the lip of the counter.

It’d been a while, so it didn’t take long for Gabriel’s pace to speed up, thrusts becoming slightly less regular. He slid the arm around his neck up to take tight hold of Jack’s hair again, jerked his head up to arch his back and force a deeper angle. Jack scrambled to find something to do with the newfound freedom of his hands, eventually gave up and stopped thinking about them when Gabriel’s other hand moved around to wrap around his slickened cock, free it and begin to stroke it with a tantalizing slowness that didn’t match the quick, rough pace of currently being fucked into mindlessness.

Jack was so on edge from the teasing, and the soreness of his scalp, and the relentless assault, that it didn’t take much to put him over. He gave a broken moan as he came, and his legs would’ve given out if Gabriel hadn’t shoved him back down and fucked him through the orgasm. He had a moment to feel a bit bad about the mess; even though it was really Gabriel’s fault, before he felt the final, deep thrust— and then a warm feeling trickle down his leg.

Gabriel rested his weight on Jack’s back, released his hair and pressed a soft kiss to his neck.

He was too fucked-out to say anything, but he hummed back.

 _I need another shower_. 

After a quick rinse, he threw on the clothes and went back to the bedroom. Gabriel was laying out on the bed, still shirtless and as handsome as always. He looked up from his phone, gave an easy smile as Jack approached.

“Do you do that with everyone you bring home for the first time?” He groused, folding his arms and staring.

Gabriel shrugged, entrancing Jack with the movement of those powerful muscles as usual. “Only the ones I like.” He gave Jack a similar sweeping look. “You know, I like the look of you in my clothes.”

“Shut up.” He said, flopping down onto the mattress to rest against Gabriel’s side. He didn’t like to admit it, but the feeling of the arm that curled around him was amazing. They were both soldiers, sure, but he never felt as safe as he did in Gabe’s arms.

“Above your eye.” Gabriel said.

“Mm?”

Two fingers forced his chin to tilt up, and he to meet that intense gaze. 

“There’s a cut.”

“Oh, yeah. Don’t worry about it. Stopped bleeding while I was rinsing off.”

Gabriel still seemed a bit put-out. “Sorry.”

“It’s _fine._ ”

That seemed to drop it, for a few minutes at least as they relaxed after the long day of travel.

“You _can_ tell me to stop.” Gabriel said. He sounded uncomfortable, or perhaps uneasy. “You know that, right? I can get pretty rough. We both know. I’m not going to get offended or anything if-“

“Oh my god shut up.” Jack pulled away. “I know I could- I- this is why I didn’t want to tell you, or _anybody_ I guess, but especially you. I shouldn’t have told you. I don’t need you fucking looking at me like I’m _delicate_ , or pathetic, or unstable, or anything!” He swallowed hard, horrified and disgusted to realize that tears were prickling the corners of his eyes.

 _I knew it. I knew he’d think differently of me. I shouldn’t have told him._ He turned his head to discreetly wipe them away, shame prickling at his chest and making it hard to breathe.

Gabriel hesitated, just making it worse. “Jackie.” He soothed, reaching out to rest a hand on Jack’s knee. “I’m _glad_ you told me. I care about you, okay? It doesn’t mean anything changed. I sure as hell didn’t treat you as if you were _delicate_ in there when I was fucking you up against the counter, did I? I just felt bad that it got you a bit cut. I don’t want to hurt you for _real_ , you feel me?”

Jack didn’t turn his head back. He didn’t want to see whatever look was in those golden eyes.

“Yeah. But you’ve never felt the need to reassure me that _of course I’d stop if you asked_ before, now did you? I _know_ , Gabe. I could stop you if I wanted anyways.”

They both knew it was a lie. Jack was pretty damn strong, and hard to catch- but once he was pinned, Gabriel would win nine times out of ten. Usually more. He was simply better at hand-to-hand.

“Alright.” Gabriel said. “You want to know? Yeah, of-fucking-course I’m going to. I just learned that you were raped repeatedly when you were a kid. For years. I’ve been going through every time I’ve held you down and fucked you or pinned you to walls or _anything,_ trying to think if I’ve ever made you uncomfortable or brought back horrible memories without realizing it. For all I know, I’ve been making you miserable for _years,_ because you wouldn’t want to complain or say anything and have to open up that can of worms. I mean, I _know_ you’ve always been pretty, I guess, enthusiastic about it all, but now I’m second-guessing myself. I _love you_ , Jack. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, or make you go back to some fucked-up memories or whatever.”

Jack could taste the blood from where he’d bitten near-through his tongue. 

_Why did I have to bring this back up? We aren’t in Indiana anymore._ “Well, you don’t have to worry. Trust me, you would know if I was getting into some _fucked-up memories_.” He quoted with a snap, remembering when he’d gone to that bar not long after getting out of basic. The guy had been hot, but it was the first time he’d been with somebody a little rough— at least willingly. He’d flipped Jack around, shoved him face-first into the door as soon as it’d shut behind them and began to crowd him in and tease under his shirt and below his waistline. He’d ignored Jack’s meager attempts to push back, probably thinking them playful— and then had been terribly apologetic and confused when Jack had finally shoved him away and stumbled to the floor, sobbing and struggling to breathe. Yeah. He still felt bad about that one. The poor guy had been so lost. 

Jack had eventually gotten over it; luckily before he’d met Gabriel.

Gabe seemed to sense there was a story or two involved, but didn’t push. “Alright. Just, don’t blame me for caring about you, and don’t blame _yourself_ for anything. We’re a team, okay?”

Jack took a shaky breath. “Okay. I- I’m sorry for getting so defensive. I just… I’ve been terrified of you finding out for a long time.”

Gabriel gave a slow blink. “Am I really that horrible?” The question seemed serious.

“No! I- I was just paranoid, I suppose. I mean you _act_ all tough, but I know more so than most that you’re actually really sweet. At least when we’re alone. I _knew_ you wouldn’t, but it’s just hard to shake that feeling of _‘he’s going to be disgusted, or think I’m weak, or feel as if he needs to change something_ ’.” Jack tried to continue, but his breath caught in his throat and he had to violently rub his face with his hands to avoid more tears. _I've cried more in the last month than since I was twelve. Fucking pathetic._

He allowed himself to be pulled into Gabriel’s lap, circles rubbed into his arm with a thumb.

After some time, he finally managed to collect himself enough to raise his head. He knew Gabriel would bitch, but he felt as if he had to say it anyways.

“Sorry.” He whispered.

“‘S alright.” Gabriel said, pressing a kiss to his temple. “I’m just glad you can be open with me now. You know, you’re handling it a fuckload better than pretty much anyone on the planet would. It’s better to talk about it and cry than bottle it up for another few years and break down.”

Jack sighed, rested his head back on Gabriel’s shoulder. “Maybe you’re right. You never cry, though.”

“I don’t have a lot to cry about.” Gabriel reasoned. “I did once.”

Jack didn’t remember that one. He was too busy bleeding out in transport. Apparently he’d looked pretty dead.

“Thanks, Gabe. I got pretty lucky when I decided to pester _you_ of all people into befriending me.”

Gabriel snorted. “Not luck. I was just too handsome for you to resist.”

“That too.” Jack said, cracking a smile. “Still the most handsome man I’ve ever met.”

“Not Chris Evans?” Gabriel asked slyly.

“Well, I’ve never met him, now have I?” Jack said, injecting a bit of wistfulness into his tone. “If only he were thirty years younger.”

“If only.” Gabriel laughed. “Anyways, ready to go eat? _Lita_ ’s been waiting a while. I guess that’s my bad.”

“You _guess…?_ Not that I’m complaining.” He admitted.

It was still a bit embarrassing to be wearing Gabriel’s clothes, but he supposed Gabe _had_ worn his in Indiana. Though that had been an entirely different situation.

And this _was_ comfortable.

“There you are!” Gabriel’s Grandmother handed them plates. “Longest showers I’ve ever seen are yours, Gabi.” She gave Jack a knowing wink.

He smiled back, unsure of what else to do.

They both fell asleep quickly that night.

He woke up at around five-thirty in the morning, but with nothing to do for the first time in ages, decided to just remain in bed and relax. It would’ve been difficult to wiggle out of Gabriel’s grasp anyways— the man treated him like an exceptionally long pillow sometimes.

So he settled in to wait, browsed sleepily through the news with one hand and slowly stroked through Gabe’s hair with the other. It almost two inches long now, and a bit wavier than Jack had expected. It was cute.

It was almost nine in the morning when he was jolted by a knock on the window across the room. There were five or six people standing there, all in their early to mid twenties, with one trying to peer through the glass.

_… is this normal city stuff?_

“Hey, uh, Gabe?” Jack nudged him in the side.

Gabriel grumbled, shifted slightly and hugged him closer.

“There’s a flock of people outside your window.”

Gabriel gave a long sigh, sat up and rubbed at his face. “Can’t even get a fuckin’ day to ourselves, can we?”

Another knock.

With a resigned look, Gabriel strode over to the window and knocked back.

“Hey, shut the fuck up! Trying to sleep in here.” He yelled.

Muffled yelling back from outside.

Gabriel opened the window.

“Fuck off. It’s not even ten yet.”

“What, they don’t make you wake up early in the _military_?” A man’s voice. “You should- oh my god, who’s in your bed?”

Gabriel shut the window and drew the curtains as the group clustered around to see.

“Friends.” He said vaguely.

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“ _Lita_ must’ve called to let them know I was home. Old bat.” Gabriel muttered, flopping back onto the bed.

Jack gave a slight laugh of shock. “Damn.”

“She knew what she was doing. How long have you been up?”

“About three and a half hours.”

“Geez. You know, you could’ve gotten up and done something. _Lita_ is probably already in her garden, and I know you love all that weird plant stuff too.”

Jack made a face. “No! That would’ve been so awkward.”

“Nah.” Gabriel shifted his arm to ruffle through Jack’s hair. “You’d be comfortable before you knew it. She’s good at that, and so are _you_.”

“Oh, come on.”

“It’s true. Everyone loves you, Jackie. She’d be no different.”

_But what if?_

He sighed. “Duly noted. Are you gonna get up now at least?”

“I guess. They won’t wait long till they all start bitching again.”

They went out and had breakfast, during which Gabriel left to go ‘grab something’ from his room. Jack cursed him internally as he walked away— Gabriel knew full well what he was doing.

“So, Jack.” Gabriel’s Grandmother set another… roll thing on his plate without asking. “My grandson can be very difficult, but he says you two have been together for quite some time now.”

“Um, yeah. Since about six or seven months after I joined the unit. Though it’s really not official… I mean, it would be against regulations if we…”

She nodded. “I understand. Just remember to invite me when you two get married.”

He coughed to hide his smile. _Gabriel was right, she doesn’t let up with that stuff._

He realized with a sudden jolt that this was the perfect time to snag some high-quality information. Gabriel had left him to force him to speak to his grandmother… but now he had an edge.

“So, when did Gabe even start with the wearing all black stuff?”

She gave a slow blink. “Gabe?”

“...Gabriel?”

She gave him a sudden, warm smile. “No, no. I just didn’t realize you called him that. Oh, he’s been going through that phase since he was, I suppose, fourteen or fifteen. He looked so good in red, and white, too.”

Jack agreed, though he also secretly loved the black he so often poked fun at.

“He looks good in pretty much everything.” Jack said.

She shrugged. “Not green. Or yellow. They clash.”

Jack hesitated. “I don’t think he owns anything in either of those colors.”

“As it should be.” She said, sounding satisfied.

Jack could help it, and laughed. “Well, whatever. I don’t care what he wears.”

“Oh don’t say that, dear. You haven’t seen some of his outfits from junior high.” She said.

“I don’t think I even _want_ to know.” He said.

“Probably not.” She winked. “Want to anyways?”

“Absolutely.”

She went into the living room and dug around in the bookshelf, pulled out one of _many_ homemade scrapbooks.

“Here, Jack. Is that what you’d like me to call you?”

“Oh, um, yeah. That’s fine.” He said.

Five minutes later as they were laughing at Gabriel’s younger self, she spoke up again.

“He was very sweet when he was young.” She said.

Jack shrugged. “He still is. And romantic. He won’t admit either of those things, though. And it’s only when we’re alone.”

She paused. “That’s not something I’ve heard anybody say about him before.”

He shifted, glanced away. “Well, it’s true.”

“Oh, I agree. He just acts so…”

“Edgy?”

She laughed. “Exactly. Oh, look at this one!”

“Is his ear…?”

“Oh, it’s a clip-on, dear.”

Gabriel came back a few minutes later, halting as he saw the scene unfolding in the living room.

Jack grinned as horror began to grow in his eyes.

“Hey Gabe. Find what you were looking for?”

“You- why the hell-“

“We’re just looking at your old pictures, Gabi.” His grandmother said, a falsely innocent expression on her face.

“I can _see_ that! This is so-“ Gabriel lunged for the book in front of them, but Jack was faster. He snatched it up and rolled away, jumped up and backpedaled.

“This book is a national treasure. I won’t let you take it.” He announced, ducking away again as Gabriel went to grab for it.

“Won’t _let_ — they’re _my_ pictures!” Gabriel snapped. He tried to sweep Jack’s legs out from under him, but he was ready for it-- and jumped over, landing near enough to one-hand slide across the kitchen island and get it between them.

Gabriel stared, eyes narrowed and calculating from the other side. They both knew that if Gabriel tried to hop the counter, Jack was fast enough to duck away. If he tried to go to either side, Jack was fast enough to stay away. However, Jack was also trapped. If he managed to get outside, he could get up high and then it would all be over— but getting outside would be impossible with Gabriel in the way to tackle him down.

“Hand over the book, Jack.”

Jack tightened his grip on the scrapbook. “Not a chance.”

“You can’t win this.”

“Perhaps not the battle, but I can win the war.” He said. He could tell that Gabriel was fighting back a smile.

“We’ll see. But for now, give me the book.”

Jack cracked it open, turned it so Gabriel could see the pages. “Look! Eighth grade school dance!”

“Why-would-you-show-him-that-you-monster!” Gabriel yelled back into the living room, where his grandmother was watching them with a fond expression. “Give me the damn book or I swear I’ll-“

“First day of high school!”

“Argh! Stop!” Gabriel finally hopped up and slid over the island counter— but with the mixed tactics he was so good at, snatching a cup at the end and splashing it in the direction of Jack’s escape route as he went.

He managed to avoid the worst of the soaking and protect the book, but the maneuver slowed him down just long enough that Gabriel was able to hook him by the back of the shirt and drag him in. After that, it was only a small tussle before he wrenched the scrapbook from Jack’s hands.

“Hah!”

“You have the book, maybe, but I’ll never forget what I’ve seen.” Jack said. He pulled away, gave a wink, and popped a hard candy from a nearby dish into his mouth.

Gabriel’s Grandmother came into the kitchen, presumably now that it was safe, and began to do the dishes. “You two are absolutely perfect for each other. Now, Gabi, your friends came calling earlier. They said that you would know where they’re waiting for you.”

Gabriel gave a long-suffering sigh, set the book on the counter and threw Jack a dirty look. “Alright. Thanks.”

“You two have fun out there. Oh, pick me up some more cinnamon while you’re out, would you dear?”

“Sure.” Gabriel said.

“Now give me a hug.” She said, gathering Gabriel in. 

Jack hung back, awkwardly waiting to leave, but she released Gabriel and went for him next.

He returned the hug, not really sure what else to do, and then followed Gabriel back to his room.

“I leave you for five minutes.” Gabriel groused as he stuffed his wallet and phone into his pocket.

Something about the moment —the happiness he felt here, maybe, and watching Gabriel move with his usual confidence, and the playing around and teasing each other — made him realize just how much he loved this man in front of him. Made him realize how completely adrift he’d be without him. So when Gabriel turned around with his mouth open to say something else, Jack reached out, closed his fist around Gabriel’s tags to jerk him closer and kiss him.

Gabriel hesitated for half a second, then moved in and kissed back, gently sliding a hand into Jack’s hair to angle his head better. 

Jack broke away, released the tags to rub his palm across Gabriel’s stubble. “I _really_ fucking love you, you know that?”

Gabriel blinked, emotion flickering through his eyes too quickly for Jack to discern what it was.

“Right back at you, Jackie.” There was a question in his tone, but he seemed content to let it go. Good. Jack didn’t have an answer. “Let’s see if you still feel that way after you meet my friends, though.”

“They can’t be that bad! Can they?”

“They can.” Gabriel confirmed. His gaze grew a little forlorn. “I guess it’s a little like your old friends’ situation. Fine people, but very little ambition. Maybe more than your friends, no offense, but they’re content to lead relatively normal lives. Spouse and kids and a steady 9-5 and all.”

“I guess that’s not inherently a bad thing.” Jack mused. “We’re kinda the odd ones out here, actually.”

“I guess.”

“They may not get much excitement, but at least they don’t have to see children stuffed in a vest and blown to pieces, or try to dig evidence out of the decaying hand of a man who’d lost everything above his shoulders days prior, or watch as people are executed because they mayor won’t give into demands or let the ATU move in.”

Gabriel ran a hand through his dark, perfect hair. “Point taken. I guess I’ll stop making a deal out of it.”

Jack slid his hand back to the tags, dragged him in for another kiss.

“So, where are we going?”

They’d hit the road about half an hour prior— or rather, the sidewalk. They’d skirted downtown and were headed into a pretty run-down area, where groups of teens armed with cans of spray-paint roamed and glared at them with suspicion.

“You’ll see.” Gabriel said, apparently soaking in the sights.

“Anything different?”

“Plenty. Nothing major though. Keep an eye out for people following us, okay? I doubt anybody will try to mug _us_ , especially this early, but people can be stupid and desperate.”

“Alright.” He said, giving a surreptitious glare to their surroundings. It was the same feeling he got in the field sometimes— for all of their training, their skill, their experience; all it took was a single well-aimed bullet to end them. Permanently. That’s why snipers were the scariest enemies of them all. Hidden death.

But Gabriel didn’t seem particularly worried, so he relaxed a bit and admired the graffiti artwork around.

“The locals call this bit of city ‘the Apocalypse gallery’.” Gabriel mentioned. “I guess, since it’s all crumbling and deserted, but has a ton of great artwork lying around and on everything.”

“Did you ever add any to it?”

Gabriel shrugged. “I tried, but art isn’t really my thing. Well. Traditional art anyways.”

“Wait, what non-traditional art is your thing?”

Gabriel shot him an almost imperceptible glance. “None.”

_Oh._

“Sewing. Costume design.”

Gabriel jolted. “What?!”

“Your grandma showed me pictures of your Halloween costumes, and there were also a few of you sitting at the machine and making them. Some were actually amazing.”

Gabriel rubbed a hand across his stubble. “Unbelievable old bat.”

“You’re very talented. When we get out of the SEP thing, maybe we can get some time off in October to have a hardcore Halloween? You could make us some costumes, and we could go to some parties or something.”

 _And if we ever get a place for us, we could even make some Halloween decorations._ But he could never say that. It would be too… much. They were soldiers. It was stupid to talk about something that permanent when they might not even be alive the same time next year. Not to admit it would also be presumptuous of him to assume Gabriel would even want to move in with him. 

Gabriel straightened, eyes brightening just a touch. “I’d like that.” He said.

It was no secret that Gabe’s favorite holiday was Halloween.

They stopped in front of a long-abandoned warehouse, more of the impressive artwork scrawled all over the plaster and fake stone.

“Creepy.” Jack said.

Gabriel gave him an incredulous stare. “You fucked around in old abandoned barns and shit when you were younger. Those are way creepier than city warehouses.”

“What?! No! Those barns were empty. Who knows who might actually be in these places?”

“You-” He sighed. “It isn’t about reality, it’s about the creep factor. I really need to show you more horror films.”

_Fuck. I did it again. He’s always looking for an excuse to make me sit through more of those stupid things._

He complained, sure, but he really didn’t mind. It was great to see Gabriel happy about something, and any excuse to cuddle was a good excuse. 

Jack noticed that Gabriel had gone back to staring at the building, a hint of contemplation in his eyes.

“Are we really going to meet your friends?” He asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“You seem hesitant.”

Gabriel snorted. “I just know how they’re going to be. Merciless. I hope you’re ready, because they’re gonna be _real_ fucking interested in you.”

“...me?”

“Yeah. You. You’re so different from anyone else I’ve ever dated that it’s ridiculous. They’re gonna have a goddamn field day.”

“Uh, alright. Should I… I mean, I can wait if you want to go hang out with your friends. There was an arcade down the road I could go hang out in. I wouldn’t mind.”

Gabriel gave him a look that would be more suitable if Jack had suggested he wear clown makeup and dance around. 

“Alright, let me get this straight. You do not go _anywhere_ in this city without me. Anywhere. Your street smarts are literally nonexistent. You would probably even fall for the whole ‘could you help me look for my dog?’ Schtick.”

“Oh, come on! I’m not that bad! But what’s wrong with dogs?”

Gabriel briefly closed his eyes. “You. Do. Not. Leave. My. Sight.”

“Geez, alright.”

“Good. Now don’t worry, they’ll probably get over it pretty quickly.” Gabriel said, finally striding over to the warehouse entrance.

It was dimly lit for the first part as they wandered amongst rotted wood pallets, but it didn’t take long to make it to what had likely once been former offices. There was a metal door, not as old as the rest of the building, with a hefty lock on the front.

Gabriel knocked, gave a kick at the end. After a moment, a slot near the top of the door opened to reveal a pair of eyes.

_If they didn’t get the idea of that stupid cliche garbage door from a movie, I’ll eat my socks._

The room was large, brightly lit, and decorated with ratty movie posters and old fairy lights. While the walls were plastered with a hundred different things, the floor was considerably more sparse. Sitting upon the concrete floor and the occasional sketchy rug were a few torn-up couches, a worn pool table, a large television, cots, and some other miscellaneous furniture pieces scattered around.

There were five people in the room, most Jack vaguely recognized from that morning. He hung back a little, trying not to make himself an easy target.

The guys all scrambled to their feet, grinning and tossing aside what they’d been working on. Three seconds later, Gabriel was no longer visible.

Old habits died hard. Jack pressed his hand flat against the side of his thigh, actively resisting the urge to pull a gun on the horde.

“Get the _fuck_ off me.” Gabriel snapped. The pile of bodies disentangled, releasing him. He scoffed, ran a hand through his hair and straightened his shirt. “Unbelievable.”

But he was smiling, just a hint.

“Dude, you got fucked _up_!” One guy said, pointing at a scar dipping below Gabriel’s collarbone.

Gabriel surreptitiously zipped his hoodie up farther. “You should see the other guy. Actually, you can’t. I think he was cremated.”

The guys all laughed, such easy smiles that it was obvious they’d all been close before. 

_I had friends, too._ He set his jaw. He knew he’d really only been _close_ with one of them. Ethan. The others had always had just this hint of distance. _It’s hard to tell looking from the outside, though. So he could feel the same way about these guys. I hope not. He looks happy._

“You’ve been gone for fuckin’ _years_ , bro! Thought you’d never drag your sorry ass back in here!” Another said, circling around Gabriel and looking him over. “Fuck, you’re still an edgelord. Isn’t the military supposed to beat it out of you or something?”

“It’s _style_ , something _you_ could never understand.” Gabriel said. “And you’re damn well lucky that I’m here. Wasn’t planning on it, but hey.” He shrugged.

“Well, you’re-” the man paused, eyes settling on Jack. “Oh-my-god-it’s-the-one-from-his-bed.”

“‘s Jack.” Gabriel said offhandedly. “From my squad in the ATU.”

Another one groaned. “What the fuck, Gabriel? How the hell did you do it? You’re unbearable! How did _you_ , mister edgelord I-don’t-feel-the-emotion-of-love, mister blondes-are-for-vapid-idiots, mister I’m-a-total-dick-to-everyone-I-date, get somebody that hot?” He sidled around to Jack, held out his hand. “Hey. I’m Leo. Nice to meet you! I’m so, so sorry you have to deal with him.”

Jack couldn’t help but laugh, shook his hand. “Jack.” He put on his best innocent expression. “I don’t know what you mean. Gabe’s so sweet!”

Gabriel shot him a death glare.

The entire group’s heads snapped around to look at Gabriel, mouths open.

“He called you _Gabe_.” One said incredulously. “You never let anyone call you that. We’ve been friends for nearly fifteen years, and you’ve never let me! You never even let people you date! `Oh, do I look like the kind of person who uses stupid nicknames?’” He mimicked.

Gabriel ignored him. “That was Halley. You’ve met Leo. The others are David, Cole, and Michael. Mike.”

They were all still staring at Gabriel.

“...Sweet?” Cole ventured.

The eyes returned to Jack.

Leo set a somber hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I’m so, so sorry.” He said again.

“Don’t be. I dug my own grave.” Jack teased. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

“Where are you from, Jack? I can’t place your accent.” Michael asked.

“Indiana.”

Silence. 

“Seriously?” Halley said.

“Yeah.” Jack raised an eyebrow. “It’s not that weird.” He protested.

Cole glanced around. “Am I the only one that knows literally nothing about Indiana?”

More silence.

“I think they have, like, a lot of corn.” Leo said eventually.

Gabriel looked like he wanted to shoot himself at this point. 

“Yeah! I grew up on a farm, actually.” Jack said. “Exported mostly corn and cider.”

They all gave him such identically dumbfounded looks that it almost made him feel self-conscious. Almost. The look on Gabriel’s face was hilarious.

“Gabriel.” Halley said. “Is dating. A blonde farm boy.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Idiots. He’s an S-squad Anti-Terrorism Unit soldier, not just some farm kid. He could kick all of your asses without half an issue.” 

Leo laughed. “So you say.”

“Oh, no. I could absolutely kick your ass.” Jack assured.

Leo seemed to realize that he was actually pretty built. “Well, you may be _strong,_ but if you think Gabriel is sweet, then I question your judgement. I mean, don’t get me wrong. He’s an old friend of mine; I love the bastard, but he’s still a dick. Like, if you’d seen him back in-“

“Alright, that’s enough!” Gabriel snapped, “Leave him alone. Yes, this is weird. You’ve had your fun. Now drop it.”

Jack noticed how all five guys turned to look when Gabriel spoke, even defused a bit. Gabe had certainly been the de facto leader of the group of friends, at least as far as Jack could tell.

“Fine, _Gabe_. For now.” Leo winked at Jack, backed away past Gabriel to flop on a couch.

“ _You_ still don’t get to call me that.” Gabriel said, settling into another nearby couch. He gestured Jack over. “The hell have all of you been up to, anyways?”

Jack walked over to take a seat near Gabriel.

Halley scoffed, folded his arms and sat on the arm of the chair occupied by Cole. “As if you _care_. You never talked to us. We had to ask your grandma every other week to see if you were still breathing. It’s not hard to send a goddamn text every once in a while.”

Gabriel shrugged. “None of you tried either.”

“Well-“ Halley hesitated. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“...Anyways. Not much.” David said. He seemed to be the quiet one. “Married. Have twin girls. Got a job at the California Department of Transportation.”

“Married. Really?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah.” David said. “You never met her. Name’s Laura. Kids are a year old, now.”

“Wow.” Gabriel said. “Anyone else?”

“I’m still _single_.” Leo complained, throwing his hands behind his head for dramatic effect. “Me and Cole just can’t get anyone.”

“Don’t drag me into it.” Cole said. “I’m happy single. Leo works for that weird billionaire up downtown, now. Does odd jobs for him. Sometimes builds him all that weird mechanical stuff he’s so good at, too. I still work at the gas station. I do manage it though, so that’s nice.”

Michael laughed. “Don’t forget to mention your side job. Cole also rehabilitates birds.”

“That’s… specific.” Gabriel said. He looked as mystified as Jack felt. “What about you, Mike?”

“Me? Oh. Unemployed pile of garbage. Still live with my mom. Officially. Unofficially, I sell a lot of drugs and make bank. My mom was diagnosed with cancer, so I’m staying with her to help out. It also helps me dodge IRS questions about how I’m affording a place while not paying any taxes.” He paused. “You can’t arrest me, can you?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I’m a soldier, not a goddamn cop. Sorry about your mom.”

Mike glanced away. “She’s doing alright this month.”

Silence for a moment.

“How about you, Hal?” Gabriel asked.

Halley didn’t say anything for a long minute. “Mnnnm.” He finally mumbled under his breath.

“C’mon, Halley.” Cole said. “It’s Gabriel. He might tease you, but fuck, that’s it.”

“Author.” Halley said. “I write.” 

Gabriel blinked. “What’s so bad about that?”

“Romance novels.” Halley finished.

Gabriel laughed for a solid two minutes.

After the teasing had died down, Leo spoke up again.

“But that’s all boring normal shit. What have you been doing? It’s _got_ to be more interesting. I mean, fuck, you’ve apparently changed into an entirely different person. You left as Gabriel the mild dick, but returned as Gabe the sweet guy who’s dating a blonde farm kid. The hell is up with that?”

Gabriel have a slow sigh of suffering.

“First, we aren’t dating. That would be against regulations. Second, you’re all being tricked. Jack isn’t _nearly_ as nice or innocent as he seems. Third- Well. He is blonde. And grew up on a farm. But he’s the second best soldier in the ATU, so I guess that’s fine.”

Jack snorted. “You _wish_ I were the second best. I could totally take you.” 

He was a bit insulted, maybe a little taken aback. _I didn’t realize my hair and my past mattered so much._

Gabriel seemed to sense what he was thinking. 

“Ignore them, Jack.” He said. “They’re making fun of me. Not you. I’m just playing along.”

“It’s fine.” Jack said. “I get it.”

Gabriel gave him a long look, turned back to his old friends. “Not much to say. Did basic. Did some normal stuff. Was offered a position in the ATU for the UN. Took it. Was tested. Assigned to S-Squad. Jack was tested and assigned to it a bit more than a year later. We worked together for another year or two. Now we’re here.”

“That can’t be it!” Cole said. “Don’t you have any cool stories? You kill terrorists for a living!”

“That’s the thing. We have way too many stories.” Gabriel said.

Jack nodded in agreement. It was always hard to pick, and sometimes, neither of them wanted to think about it. Quite a few of the memories weren’t necessarily good.

“One.” David requested. “Unless it makes you uncomfortable.”

Gabriel sighed, turned to Jack. “Can you think of any?”

Jack tilted his head back and forth, thinking. “Well, how about… Munich? The power plant?”

The five all straightened, interest alighting in their eyes.

“Nuclear?” Halley asked.

“Of course.” Gabriel said. “It’s all most of Europe uses. It’s all most countries use, actually.”

“Well, come on! Story time!” Leo encouraged.

“Fine.” Gabriel relented. “Six or seven months ago, the UN got word that a neo-nazi sect, even more radical than usual, had captured the nuclear power plant that produced for most of Munich. They didn’t only shut off the power, but they were using the material within to make a weapon powerful enough to hold most of the city hostage. They had a list of demands they wanted. Mostly racist stuff. I don’t remember the details. Anyways, the stakes were high, so they sent us S-squad in. Jack scaled the building and managed to pop open an entrance, then Me, Jack, and four others then went inside to try to find the leader while the rest of the squad tried to breach other areas or cause a distraction. We fought our way through most of it, stopped the bomb, and managed to find the leader. He surrendered in the end, after realizing the vast majority of his men were dead.” Gabriel said.

The five exchanged glances.

“Gabriel?” Leo said. 

“Yeah?”

“You’re still shit at storytelling.”

“I’m a soldier, not a fucking comedian.” Gabriel said with a wave of his hand. “Story told. There.”

A couple hours of conversation later, Michael suddenly perked up. “Oh! You know what? It’s getting late. We should head to the old bar!”

Gabriel shrugged. “Sorry. We have plans. Tomorrow or the day after, absolutely. Just not tonight.”

Jack shot him a questioning glance that was promptly ignored. 

_We have plans?_

“Shame.” David said. “As long we see you around, I suppose.”

Leo gave a dramatic sigh. “Whatever. Enjoy your… whatever it is you do when you’re not single. I dunno.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Thanks. C’mon Jack. See you guys later.”

When they were back out in the cool evening air, Gabriel turned to him and shrugged. “Sorry about all that.”

“They seem, um, nice.” Jack said carefully. “They’re… a lot, but they’re nice.”

Gabriel snorted. “That’s a good way to put it.”

They began to walk.

“So, we have plans?” He finally asked.

Gabriel shot him a quick side-glance. “Yeah. If you want.”

“Of course. Why the secrecy?”

Gabriel reached over, ruffled through his hair before he could duck away.

 _Fucking-_ He swatted Gabriel’s hand away and tried to fix it. _He’s such a pain._

_I love him._

“Wasn’t secrecy. I just didn’t think of it until Mike mentioned that it was getting late.”

“Oh. Well, are you ever going to tell me what it is?”

“Nah. I just hope we can get in.”

“Get in _where_?”

Gabriel remained obstinate in his refusal to explain, leaving Jack drowning in curiosity as they walked through the quickly darkening city.

The thing was, the city didn’t _get_ dark. There were billboards and skyscrapers and massive street lights and cars and blazing storefronts. The sky almost did, but there was a thin layer of light haze that remained in place.

Jack realized as they crossed a street that he couldn’t see a single star, let alone a constellation or planet or hell— even the moon was a blur of ever-so-slight glow.

The realization scared him, almost. Made him feel out-of-place. Lost. The feeling disappeared moments later, but still left him uneasy. 

“Jackie?”

Jack realized he’d been asked a question.

“Oh, sorry. Was thinking. What’d you say?”

“I _said_ , ice-cream or taffy?”

“...what?”

“Aren’t you- Geez, you really weren’t paying attention. I changed my mind. I’ll take you where I was planning to go another time. I was suggesting we grab some dinner instead, then pick up one of those desserts from the stalls near the beach.”

“That sounds great! I’m pretty hungry.” Jack said. “Also, I dunno. I’ve never had taffy.”

“You’ve never lived. What has you so distracted, anyways?”

“The sky is creeping me out.” He confessed.

Gabriel looked up, squinted. “What’s wrong with it?”

“What do you _mean_? There’s nothing there!”

“Exactly!”

“No, I mean- there aren’t any _stars_ , Gabe. You can barely see the goddamn moon!”

“Oh. Yeah. ‘S just like that in big cities.”

“Well, it’s creepy.” He said. “That’s all.”

“You’re something else, Jack.” Gabriel said fondly. “I’m just glad- oh, what kind of food do you want? Creepy sky, sure, but you can get any sort of food from basically any culture.”

“Uh… You pick. You’re way better at that stuff, and this _is_ your city.” Jack said.

Gabriel seemed happy with the answer, didn’t even change direction.

 _He knew I’d say that._ Jack sighed. _Showoff._

Gabriel picked some Mediterranean place, and though it was getting late, it was still bustling inside. 

“Lot of people.” Jack commented.

“Yeah. Always saw this place as a kid. Wanted to try it, but we just didn’t have the money.”

Jack hummed. _Never thought about that. Money wasn’t a huge part of life in Indiana. It was all tied up in the land and the crops, really. Never went out to eat or anything. Occasionally Ethan and I went to the cinema, but even then, Mrs. Hale would also take things other than money._

_It’s so different here._

“Hopefully it lives up to your expectations.” He finally said. 

They were seated in the back of the restaurant; a small booth away from the main part of the crowd. 

“Hey, Jack.”

“Mm?” He propped his chin on his hand, smiled.

“Thanks for coming with me.”

He nudged Gabriel with his foot. “Of course! You came out to Indiana with me, and I imagine that here, it’ll be a little less… well, you know.”

“I didn’t mean— well, I suppose I also meant here and now.” Gabriel said. His gaze shifted away. “I was really meaning to say, thanks for leaving with me. The ATU. This… well, they say that this program is going to be dangerous, and I know you wouldn’t be doing it if I weren’t.”

Jack hesitated. _He’s right. But._ “You mean everything to me, Gabe. It would’ve been a lot worse for me to refuse. If I hadn’t gone, and later I’d heard- heard you were killed— I don’t know what I’d do. We’re a team, and if we’re going to die, we’re going to die together.”

Gabriel didn’t look convinced, but at least seemed a little more relaxed.

“Anyways, what are you getting?” Gabriel said. “It’s on me, by the way.”

Jack almost argued, but let him have it. “I’ll get next time.” He said, opening the menu. He recognized exactly zero things on it.

Gabriel seemed to catch his expression, laughed. “Do you need help?”

“No. Fuck off.” 

After dinner, which Gabriel seemed enthusiastic about, he found himself being dragged down the sidewalk. 

“We’re going to be here a week, you know.” He laughed, acquising.

“A week’s never long enough.” Gabriel said.

 _True._ He thought fondly.

“Where are we going, anyways?”

“Beach for taffy, and then...I don’t know.”

“What?” He said.

Gabriel pulled him close, looped an arm around his shoulders and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “This is the city, Jack. You don’t need a plan. _Activities_ present themselves.”

“Please, let’s not get arrested.” He said.

Gabriel shot him a look. “I’m not a criminal.”

“You-“

“I cut all that out in my late teens. Didn’t want to jeopardize my future hopeful military career.” He paused. “Didn’t want to end up like my parents.”

Jack didn’t know what to say. Gabriel had never mentioned his parents, really. Just a lot about his grandmother. He’d never pressed.

Instead, he slid an arm around Gabriel’s waist, leaned his head on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

“‘S fine.” Gabriel said. Another pause. “Everyone deserves a second chance. Kids especially.”

The city never quieted down, it never darkened, the hordes of people never ceased, and it was bordering on overwhelming.

_You’re a soldier, Jack. A city shouldn’t bother you._

But there was nowhere to go. To rest. No quiet corner or place you could simply view the damnable sky. It was bearable with Gabriel at his side, but he didn’t want to think about the alternative.

Fuck, it was just so loud. Gunshots were one thing, but a thousand ever-evolving conversations in multiple languages was another. Too much to keep track of. Too many angles of attack against them.

 _Don’t be ridiculous._ He told himself.

It didn’t work.

_Why is it so much worse at night?_

“Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“You good?”

“Yeah.”

Gabriel squinted at him. “Don’t like cities?”

“It’s just a bit much is all.” He admitted.

“Need a break?”

“Nah.”

Gabriel hesitated. Blinked. “Well.” He said slowly. “There is _one_ minor law we could break.”

“...Gabe?”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Come on.”

Jack let himself be led through crowds, around towering skyscrapers and to a particularly expansive building. It seemed to be the tallest around.

Gabriel stopped outside the building, turned to him and reached out to straighten his collar. “Activities present themselves.” Gabriel said with a wink. “Act like you belong.”

“Wh—”

And then he was pulled inside the building. A bored-looking receptionist glanced up, but then back down to her phone as Gabriel strode with undue confidence towards the elevator.

“Gabe!” Jack hissed as the doors closed. “Is this—”

“It’s legal. So far. Public building.” Gabriel said. He punched a button near the top floor. “When we get to the floor, get out and talk. Act casual. We’ll speak for a minute, then head into the stairwell.”

His protests died in his throat, too curious to argue. “Alright.”

They stepped out into the hall, where Gabriel nodded at a passing woman. She nodded back, not seeming to realize that they didn’t belong there.

“These buildings have hundreds, even thousands of workers.” Gabriel said. “If you act like you belong, and don’t do anything to wake the sleeping security guy who is supposed to be watching the cameras, you’ll be fine.”

“So this was a common occurrence for you?”

Gabriel shrugged. “After a fashion. The trick doesn’t work as well if you’re a teen, but it did a few times.” He opened the stairwell, still talking, and they began the trek up the last few flights of stairs.

Once at the top, Gabriel checked the door for alarms and opened it up to reveal the rooftop. Jack felt like an idiot.

 _Of course this was his plan._ And he loved Gabriel all the more for it. _He knows me so well._

The minute he stepped out into the roof proper, he finally felt free again. The sky was _there_ , and open, and he could see in every direction.

“Gabe, have I ever told you that you’re the best?”

“Not enough.” Gabriel teased.

“Well, you’re the best.” He said. He walked over to the edge, leaned over the chest-high wall.

He’d never really put much thought into cities before. Gabriel had taken him plenty of times to the little city near the base during their time with the ATU, and that had been enjoyable. They’d walked around, eaten street cart food, and Gabriel had tried with varying amounts of success to teach him bits of spanish as they sat on the steps of various office buildings. They’d gone to bars, theaters, museums, and walked through the parks. That had been a small city. It wasn’t as if Jack hadn’t _been_ to large cities— even some of the largest in the world. The thing was, during those times, they’d been on missions. He hadn’t had time or energy to even think about the city itself; not when there were people in danger and S-class terrorists to stop. 

This city, LA, was different. It meant something to Gabriel, and so it meant something to him. He had time to stop and think about it, and unlike the little patch of skyscrapers near base, it was a _real_ city.

He’d felt like some rural idiot for most of the day, struggling with just following Gabriel around the chaotic, _loud_ mess. Combat was far more cohesive than the city, at least, as far as it went. Gabriel had seemed to more than be comfortable with it— he’d seemed to enjoy it. Jack loved that. Adored seeing Gabriel happy and comfortable in an environment he loved. Jack had tried his best to follow along with it, tried to let himself be infected by Gabriel’s love of the city— but all day, he’d simply felt trapped.

Looking down at the city now, from such a great height, he finally understood a little bit of Gabriel’s enthusiasm. There was just so _much_. Gabriel was the type of person who simultaneously wanted to be the highest-ranking person in the room; a hero, and also a shadow lurking in the back; controlling all from behind the scenes. Jack understood that. He wasn’t really sure how Gabriel was going to try to make that dichotomy _work_ , but the city made sense. You could get lost in it so easily. Looking down at the hundreds of thousands, at the literal millions of people, each with their own life— yeah. A million things to do, and a million ways to either be a hero or gain underhanded control. As much as Gabriel tried to say so, he _wasn’t_ a bad person. Just…

And the city made sense.

And looking down at it all, he finally realized the appeal. 

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Gabriel commented, leaning against the wall beside him.

“Yeah.” He said honestly. “The lights are incredible. So many people.”

“Feeling better?”

Jack shifted, pressed against Gabriel’s side and took his hand. Squeezed it. “Much. Makes a lot more sense from up here.” 

Gabriel snorted. “Figured. You’re the type of guy that needs to get a birds-eye view before you can be comfortable somewhere. You were uneasy at base before you managed to get to the roof. Anywhere we go, actually.”

“...really?”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”

_Is it that easy? Really?_

Thinking back… yeah.

And then, that lopsided half-smile he’d fallen so hard for appeared. “Like I’ve always said. I know you better than you know yourself, Jackie.”

Jack pulled Gabriel’s hand closer, pressed a kiss to the back. “I guess so. And-“ He lightly bit one knuckle. “-I know you better.”

When he woke up the next morning, he decided to be brave and soldier-like. After spending a few minutes working himself up and bracing himself, he left Gabriel to sleep and went to the kitchen.

“Good morning, Jack.” Gabriel’s grandmother sat at the kitchen table, sipping at a mug of coffee and doing a crossword. “Gabi mentioned you always got up ‘too damn early to be normal’, but my goodness. It’s not even six.”

Jack gave a slightly awkward laugh, not really sure what to say to that. “Old habits die hard.” He said weakly. “Grew up on a farm.”

“Understandable.” She said, and took another sip. “Care for some breakfast and coffee?”

He swallowed. “Um, sure. But shouldn’t we wait for Gabe?”

She chuckled. “It’ll be a while yet before he gets his ass- er, before he gets out of bed.”

Jack grimaced. “Yeah.”

“I’ll make some breakfast in a few hours, then. For now, how about you help yourself to some coffee, and then help _me_ with this crossword.”

“Sure, Ms.— er—“

“ _Lita_.” She said.

_Fuck._

He managed to figure out the coffee, tossed a little milk in it and then went back to the table and sat down.

“Black with milk?” She said. “You don’t mind bitter?”

“Uh, no. Bitter is fine.” He said. “We always had a lot of milk though. So I’m used to just that.”

She nodded. “Right, the farm. You spent your entire childhood there?”

“Yeah. Born there. Left at eighteen for the military.”

Over the next couple of hours, she asked him about the farm life and he did his best to answer without bringing up anything about his family situation. She seemed interested, which after looking at her considerable garden out back, made sense.

“So, Jack.” She said after the farm conversation had passed. “You’ve been with Gabi for some time now.”

Jack hesitated. “Not… officially.”

“Regulations.”

“Yeah. But unofficially? We’ve been together for a while.” He said, unable to help the smile.

She sighed. Set down her coffee. “I’ll admit, I was surprised when he told me about you. I love my grandson, but he can be… difficult. He’s been with his fair share of significant others, at least when he was young, and his track record was not good. He could be cruel, and he left quite the trail of broken hearts. I don’t think it was consciously intended, at least, always. Nevertheless. When he called me and said he was seeing somebody new, I figured it would be more of the same.” She set down her empty mug. “It was different though. When he talked about you, it was different. Not the usual flippancy. And then it lasted so _long_ , and he only seemed to get more sure about you. I still wasn’t sure, but now that you’re here? It’s very plain to see how much he cares. When you called him Gabe, that was telling enough. He’s always _detested_ that nickname. I remember he had a girlfriend that tried to call him that once, and goodness did he snap at her. You’re the first person I’ve met that he doesn’t seem to mind. And that scene in the kitchen, where you two fought over that photo album, was simply precious.” She paused. “Oh dear, I’m scaring you off, aren’t I? I’m just very happy he found somebody he actually cares for, and that it’s somebody like you. I haven’t known you long, but from what he’s said in the past and what I’ve seen so far, you’re a lovely young man who cares just as much for him.”

Jack had not been expecting an emotional barrage, and was now vaguely regretting not staying in bed with Gabriel. Though. It was nice to know that she seemed to approve of him.

“It’s… hard to believe that he wasn’t quite so nice in the past…” Jack swallowed. “I mean, he’s always grumpy in public, or when others are around. But when we’re alone, he’s _so_ sweet.”

She shook her head. “Again, I’ve never heard that particular accusation. It does make an old woman happy to hear, though. You two seem to make such a good pair.”

“I like to think so.” He said.

“It must be difficult. You two have such a dangerous job, and working with each other? The stress, and how terrifying it seems like it’d be.” She said.

Jack hesitated. Thought about how many times he’d thought Gabriel was going to die, or how many times he thought _he_ would die and leave Gabriel alone to grieve. How many times they’d been hurt and had to sit at each others’ side in the medical bay.

“It is hard.” Jack said eventually. “I hate the danger he’s in. I hate seeing him hurt. But… I wouldn’t trust anybody but myself to watch his back, and I wouldn’t trust anybody more to watch mine. We’re a team out in the field, and it _works_.”

She smiled at that. “That’s what he said. You two worked so well as a team that they offered you _both_ a position at this new dangerous program.”

“According to the Captain.” Jack said.

She smiled at him, but there was worry behind those warm eyes. Fear.

He swallowed again. “It may be dangerous, but we’ll be together. I promise, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect him. Gabriel…” He thought about that mission in Austria. He hadn’t even thought before tackling the terrorist and taking the shot to the chest. “I would die for him.”

She seemed to believe him. “Thank you. Just be careful. You mean a lot to him, and it would break his heart if you were hurt.”

After another hour or so of thankfully less intense conversation, Gabriel finally exited the bedroom. His shirt was rumpled, his hair was a mess, he was still stumbling half-asleep, and Jack had never been more in love. 

“Mornin’.”

“Morning, Gabe.” He said. He stood as Gabriel sat by him, pressed a kiss to his cheek and went to the kitchen side. 

_Let’s see…_ he scanned the shelf, finding with success the hot chocolate tabs.

Gabriel had a sweet tooth. Couldn’t stand coffee, but still wanted something hot after waking up. His morning drink of choice had been a secret to the entire squad, until Jack had accidentally taken a sip and discovered the truth. He’d never told the rest of the squad, and Gabriel had kissed him for the first time nearly two months after. 

He set the mug of hot chocolate down, went back to his fresh coffee.

“Thanks, Jackie.” Gabriel murmured, yawning again for the third time in as many minutes.

Gabriel’s grandmother made breakfast while Gabriel nursed his drink, slowly coming back to life after the sleep.

“How long y’ been up?”

“Five-thirty.”

Gabriel made a face. “You’re a monster.”

“And what does that make you?”

Gabriel squinted. “It’s too early for this, Morrison.”

“Early is the best time to tease you.” He said. “You can’t think of any good comebacks.”

Gabriel growled under his breath and said nothing, proving Jack’s point.

“Why do you even do it?” Gabriel said. “We got back at like two last night. That’s not even four hours of sleep.”

Jack shrugged. “Habit. Couldn’t get up later if I tried. Anyways, you know me; I get naps in where I can. Thank you.” He said to Gabriel’s grandmother, who had set plates down in front of them.

“I was just talking to Jack.” She said. “Wonderful young man. You’d best be nice to him, Gabi. You won’t find another like him.”

Gabriel grumbled. “I know. I’m lucky. I get it.”

Jack winced at the self-conscious prickling in his spine. “Well, I don’t know. I think I’m the lucky one.” He said.

It was true.


	4. LA II, Where they get into various sorts of trouble and Jack learns that crustaceans have it out for him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. This is the first non-original thing I've ever written, and for the only pair I love enough to actually write about. It's not nearly out of my system yet, either.  
> Thanks, guys!

As they left the house, Gabriel slid an arm around his waist.

Weird.

Gabriel had been oddly… touchy the previous day, but Jack hadn’t mentioned it. It was getting unnerving now.

“Hey, Gabe. What’s up with you these last couple days?”

Gabriel glanced at him, eyebrow raised. “Specify.”

“You’re just… touchy. You’ve never been like that. Like. Ever. In public at least.”

Gabriel blinked at him. Pulled away. “Sorry.”

“Wh—” Jack huffed. “I didn’t say it was a _problem_. Just wondering what’s up.”

“Dunno.” Gabriel said. “Couldn’t exactly do it at base, now could I? What with us being a secret and all.”

“Yeah, but what about the last week and a half? You weren’t like that in Indiana, either.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Why are you analyzing me, Morrison?”

“Hypocrite. Stop changing the subject, anyways.”

“What? I don’t _know_.” Gabriel said. “Guess I just have to keep tabs on you somehow. It’s a big city, and you always manage to find trouble. Gotta keep you close, or you’ll do _something_ I’ll have to rescue you from.”

Jack’s jaw dropped. “I’m not that bad!”

“You absolutely are.” Gabriel shot him his half smile. “Keeps things entertaining.”

Jack melted, just a little. As usual. 

_How does he do this to me?_

They met up with Gabriel’s friends at the warehouse, where Leo was sprawled dramatically out on the floor and the rest were fucking around on their phones.

“Finally!” Leo said. He didn’t get up.

“The fuck is wrong with you.” Gabriel said.

“He’s just doing the usual.” Cole said. 

Jack suppressed a smile. Fun group.

“What are we doing today, Gabe?” Halley said.

Gabriel shot him a glare. “Don’t call me that. I don’t know. _You_ guys asked _us_ to come.”

Cole frowned. “Right. Forgot.”

“Where’s Mike?” Gabe glanced around.

“With his mom. It’s a treatment day.” Cole said.

“Oh.” Gabriel said.

Silence.

Leo sat up. “He’ll be here by this evening. Anyways, we figured we could go with you, help you show your _buddy_ around.”

Gabriel ignored his tone. “Right.”

“It’s just an excuse to spend some time with you.” David said quietly. “Ignore Leo’s idiocy.”

“Hey!” Leo protested. 

Gabriel turned to Jack. “We don’t have to stick with them.”

Jack winked. Leaned over to kiss his cheek. “I’m fine with anything. Your friends seem nice.”

Gabriel didn’t seem as impressed. “They're just trying to make a good impression on you.”

That night, after spending the day trawling the city, they went to a crowded bar that the group had apparently used to frequent during their delinquent teenage years. It was different, being in a group again– like their years with the ATU; those days the squad had been off-duty. He could tell Gabriel was thinking something similar, with that faraway look in his eyes.

“Gabe.” He tried again.

Gabriel refocused on the present, back to his usual protective, grumpy hunch. “What?” “Halley asked us to find a place to sit.”

“Oh.” Gabriel glanced around, seeming far more at ease in the crowds than he’d been out in the cornfields. “Busy night. Might have to displace some people.”

“... Displace?”

But Gabriel was already maneuvering through the crowd, pulling Jack along by the arm with an iron grip. He did his best to avoid bumping into people, but it was nearly impossible. He hadn’t been in such close-quarters with so many strangers since… ever, and it was _certainly_ an experience. He didn’t hate it.

They thankfully didn’t have to _displace_ anyone, with Gabriel managing to find a cluster of empty seats off to the side.

“In.” Gabriel said, pointing to the booth.

Jack narrowed his eyes. “You go first.”

“Are you really– Jack, come _on_.”

“I get up more often.” He said.”

“You get into _trouble_ more often.”

“I-”

Their argument was cut short as he felt a shove from behind and fell off-balance into Gabriel, sending them both into the booth.

“That wasn’t very nice, Leo.” David said.

Jack righted himself and shot a glare at Leo, who gave him a sheepish smile in return.

“Sorry! You guys were taking forever.” Leo said.

_Can’t be too mad. I won._

David handed out drinks; beers that Gabriel somehow seemed both pleased and disgusted with.

“This is nostalgic.” Gabriel said.

Cole appeared from the crowd with some food. “Isn’t it? I know we have better taste now that we aren’t idiot teens, but Halley was ever the romantic. Insisted on the classics.”

Halley, who’d wormed his way through the crowd an instant after Cole, elbowed him. It was hard to tell if he was blushing in the dim, flickering light. “Shut it, bird-boy.”

“That was _terrible_.” Gabriel said. David nodded in mute agreement.

Everyone settled into easy conversation after that. Cole squeezed in alongside Jack and Gabriel while Halley and David took the other side, leaving Mike to steal and pull up a chair as some unlucky soul stood for a new drink.

They _were_ nice, if… enthusiastic. Jack was a little ashamed, really, in retrospect. His friends had talked a bit with Gabriel, asked some questions– but hadn’t really been overly welcoming. Strangers weren’t common in his hometown.

Here? Whether or not they were doing it for Gabe’s sake or not, they treated him like a member of their little group. They even teased him like the rest, and that especially made him feel as if he’d known them for years as well. It was… 

Nice.

He and Cole stood to let Gabriel out, and once he was gone, Leo leaned over the table with a sparkle in his eye. “Jack. Now that he’s gone?”

Jack tapped his fingers across his empty bottle. “Uh oh.”

“Everything he’s said is, like, a hundred percent true? You’re both anti-terrorism soldiers or something?”

“Um, yeah? Well, we _were_ in the anti-terrorism unit. What, think he’s lying?”

“No! It’s just... “ Leo grimaced. “Weird to think about. I mean if it was gonna be anyone it was gonna be _him_ , but I literally can’t wrap my head around him letting anyone order him around.”

“Ah.” Jack winked. “I can’t tell you anything pre-ATU, but he certainly still doesn’t like to be ordered around. Though… he often isn’t. Gabe and I helped out with the POA- er, plan of attack pretty often. He was something of a lieutenant without official rank. I guess I was, too, now that I think about it.”

“Really?” David sat back in his seat. “Happy for him, I guess. I bet he’s happy too.”

“Especially since he has you, huh?” Leo teased, kicking Jack lightly under the table. 

Jack scratched the back of his head. “Oh, I imagine I help a little. I can do some damage mitigation when it comes to his interactions with others.”

“Still not the most sociable?” Cole asked.

Jack nearly snorted. “Oh my god, _no_. He’s the grumpiest person I’ve ever met.”

“Okay.” Halley said. “That’s the thing. I literally write terrible romance novels for a living, and even I wouldn’t pair two characters like you up. Wouldn’t be realistic. He’s a grumpy asshole, and you’re all… I dunno, not?”

“That’s…” Jack laughed. “We aren’t as different as you think. I know you don’t believe me, but Gabriel _is_ very sweet. When we’re alone, at least. And like Gabe said yesterday, I’m not as nice as I seem– I _do_ kill people for a living.”

“Which is hard enough itself to believe.” Cole said. “Well. I guess they’re generally bad people.”

“Usually. And we do try to take prisoners when we can– though S-Squad tends to have more dangerous targets, and therefore fewer prisoners.” He looked around at the somber faces. “Hey, wanna see some pictures?”

Leo’s face lit up. “ _Please._ Hurry! Before he gets back!”

Jack pulled out his phone and showed the group pictures from their time in the ATU. From them training at base, to the long transport rides from base to mission, to calm moments _during_ missions, to time off in the little city near base– and accidentally one of Gabriel drooling on his bunk pillow fifteen minutes late to formation.

“What. Are you. showing them.” Gabriel appeared out of nowhere as Jack snatched his phone back.

“Pictures of your old base.” Cole deadpanned.

Jack just smiled as Gabriel glared at him, eyes narrow.

Over the next few days, they fell into a sort of morning routine. Jack would wake up at his usual time and go to the kitchen, make some coffee and spend a couple of hours with _Lita_. Once the sun was well past up, he would make some fresh coffee for himself, some hot chocolate in a thermos for Gabriel, and then head back to the bedroom and read with Gabe sleeping next to him in bed. Once Gabriel woke up, usually a bit past ten, he would drink his hot chocolate and they would spend another half-hour together before finally getting up.

Jack said he did it just so Gabriel wouldn’t bitch about waking up to a cold bed every morning, but really, he was getting alarmingly reliant on that time spent together. It was just something they’d never been able to do before, certainly with the ATU, and even those weeks at the farm, Jack had gotten up early every morning to help out.

_I need to stop, soon. We can’t get used to it. Who knows if we’ll even be able to see each other at whatever this SEP thing is? Could easily be separated. And after that, well. We’ll likely be assigned to different places._

He was beginning to realize that it was quite possibly the last week they would ever spend with each other.

Gabriel stirred beside him, unaware of his thoughts turning to mild panic, and lifted his head to press a sleepy kiss to the side of his arm. “Mornin’.”

He forced a smile to his face. _Time to make the most of it, then._ “Morning, Gabe.” He reached over and lifted the thermos, handed it to Gabriel.

After nursing his drink for a few minutes, resting curled against Jack’s side and his head on Jack’s stomach, he mumbled something.

“...Repeat that?”

“I just realized something dumb.” Gabriel murmured a bit more clearly.

_Ah. Him too?_

But Gabriel had something else on his mind. “We aren’t in the ATU anymore.”

“Yeah?” Gabriel smiled lazily, flipped around to pull Jack atop him. “There are no regulations right now to break. No stupid anti-fraternization rules.”

Huh.

Jack pressed a kiss to the tip of Gabriel’s nose. “I guess so. We’re still technically with the UN, though.”

_What are we, then?_

A question they’d never asked before– _allowed_ themselves to ask before. A stupid question when being anything to each other wasn’t even a possibility. 

_Still isn’t_. He reminded himself.

“What’s on your mind, Jackie? You don’t look as happy as I thought you’d be.”

Jack didn’t want to bring the mood down again, but he was fully aware that stalling would just make Gabriel more determined to pull it out of him. _The bastard._

“This might be it, Gabe.”

Gabriel was silent for a long time. “SEP.”

“Yeah.”

“They might separate us is what you’re thinking. And after…”

“Might be assigned anywhere.”

Gabriel was silent for so long this time that Jack was nearly sure he’d fallen back asleep.

“Funny.” Gabriel eventually said.

“What is?”

“That you think I’d _let_ it end there.” Gabriel propped his head on his hand, parallel to and facing him. “I’d find a way. After all, what are the chances I’d ever find somebody even half worth you? You’re the damn best soldier I’ve ever met, and you– you actually–” The humor Gabriel had been going for had slowly leaked away, leaving behind somber honesty. “You actually seem to want to be around me.”

Jack blinked, shifted. “Of course I do. You’re…” he trailed off, unable to vocalize everything he felt about Gabriel. “You.” “Cheesy.” Gabriel said, ever the hypocrite. “But you don’t get it. You smiled every time you caught sight of me at base, even before we were really that close– when I was a dick to you every time we talked. Not to even get int much of a perfect team we make out in the field, with our differing specialities– and how I always know I can trust you to watch my back better than anyone else out there. It’s like we were made for– made to be a team.” Gabriel’s face was slightly flushed. “Er, so, don’t worry. I’ll keep us together. They offered to bring us both into SEP because of the Captain’s reports, and almost each one showed that we worked better as a team. The people who run SEP probably aren’t idiots. And even if they are–”

Jack listened to him ramble on and on, his heart melting. Plans about SEP, plans about after SEP, plans about the far-flung future and Gabriel’s dream of running a new Spec-Ops division for the UN, with Jack as his lieutenant.

_Nice to see he’s just as presumptuous as me earlier, assuming he’d want to move in together and decorate for Halloween every year._

_I would do anything for this man_.

Gabriel eventually trailed off, obviously with the realization that he’d been talking for nearly forty minutes.

“Gabe?”

Gabriel gave him a sheepish look. “Yeah?”

Jack moved forward, kissed him hard enough to knock his head back down to press into the pillow. “I love you.”

_Lita_ raised an eyebrow as they finally entered the kitchen. “I see you two decided to eschew breakfast in favor of lunch.”

“Guess so.” Gabriel said. Jack hopped up to sit on the island beside him.

“Well, it’ll be done soon. Oh, and Gabi? I have the ladies coming over for board games today, so I want you both out of the house by one.”

“Sure. We have plans today anyways.”

Jack squinted. “We do?” _Why am I always the last to hear about them?_

Stop one was a clothing store nearby.

“You don’t own any sort of swim trunks, and I’ve grown out of all my old ones.” Gabriel said. 

“Swim trunks? What the hell are we doing?”

“I don’t know, genius. Got any bright guesses about what we might do with swim trunks in LA?”

Jack couldn’t help the smile. That was his Gabriel, right there. “Beach?”

“A record time.” Gabriel said, pushing him further into the store. “So pick out– uh, you can swim, right?”

Jack shot him a look. “Seriously? We had to pass a swim test every six months.”

“Oh. Right.”

_He’ll never know that I only learned to swim when I was eighteen, during basic._

“I remember now.” Gabriel recalled. “You were _terrible_.”

“I passed!”

“Barely.” Gabriel teased. They stopped in front of the worryingly large swimwear section. “Pick something out. I’ll make sure you don’t drown out in the surf.” 

Jack watched as Gabriel took about fifteen seconds to pick out a pure black pair with a white skull on the right side.

_Of course._

Now. _What’s the pair that will embarrass him the most to be in close proximity to?_

After about ten minutes of indecision, Gabriel rolled his eyes and, in about thirty seconds, managed to produce a blue pair with two darker stripes that Jack instantly loved.

_How the hell does he do that?_

After exiting the store, they hailed a taxi to which Gabriel gave complicated directions. It didn’t sound very beach-y.

“Where are we going?”

Gabriel leaned back in the taxi, shot him a puzzled look. “Beach. We did talk about that, right?”

Jack nodded. “I thought they had names or something, though.”

“Oh. Fucks sake, Jackie, I’m not taking you to some shitty tourist beach. Can’t stand all the idiots and their trash. We’re going somewhere only locals know. Should be a pretty empty stretch if we’re lucky.”

“Sounds nice.” Jack said. He set down the lunch bag _Lita_ had given them, settled to rest against Gabriel’s side.

He woke up to prodding on his chest, and sleepily exited the taxi at Gabriel’s behest. 

“We’re here. Through some trees and a little hike down the cliffside and we’re on the beach.”

Jack perked up at that. “Hike?”

“Yep.”

The beach was gorgeous, hot, but not too hot, devoid of people, and the sand…

“My feet are sinking,” He said.

“You’re heavy.” Gabriel informed. He’d already taken off his shoes by the cliffside rocks. Jack backtracked and did the same.

They made it near the water and laid out towels, and though Jack was worried it was too close to the lapping waves, Gabriel assured him that the tides wouldn’t hit them for a while yet.

The waves, the ocean, the horizon dipping into nothingness– it was incredible, and it was like _nothing_ he’d ever seen before. How a flat plane of blue was so beautiful Jack didn’t understand, but he certainly appreciated it.

He realized a moment later that his expression staring at the ocean must’ve been as a slack-jawed idiot, because Gabriel was staring at him with a slight smile.

He flushed. “What?”

“Nothing.” Gabriel said gruffly, turning back to setting up their little section of the beach. “It’s just nice seeing you by the ocean for the first time.”

“I’ve seen it before.” He muttered, wandering away to look over the multitude of shells scattered across the sand. _From above._

As he wandered, he caught sight of a particularly beautiful shell that stood out from among the broken shards and let out an involuntary gasp. 

“Gabriel!”

Gabriel nearly dropped his bag. “What?!”

“Look!” Jack held up a shell, larger than the rest on the beach, unbroken, in beautifully mottled colors.

“Pretty.” Gabriel said. The corner of his lips twitched.

Jack narrowed his eyes. “What’s so funny?”

“Well…” Gabriel started.

Jack gave a far too high-pitched squawk as the shell in his hand _moved_ , something long and wet brushing against his fingers– and threw it as hard as he could, stumbling back to fall onto the sand.

Once Gabriel’s laugher had devolved into gasping for breath, he maneuvered over in fits of giggles to help Jack to his feet.

“It was a crab.” Gabriel said unhelpfully, nearly going into another fit of laughter at Jack’s expression.

Jack stared at the sand stretching in either direction for miles. _Anything could be hiding in there._

“Anyways.” Gabriel said, brushing the sand off of Jack’s back. “Throw your trunks on. We can swim for a bit, then eat the dinner _Lita_ packed.”

“Yes sir, commander.” He said, poking fun at the tone.

The look in Gabriel’s eyes after the joke, though, made him swallow hard and consider making similar jokes in the future.

The water was surprisingly cool, but it didn’t take long to get used to after Gabriel dunked him into a wave.

Things eventually escalated into a water-war, Gabriel winning with clearly more experience until Jack discovered the technique of going _underwater_ , where it was cloudy enough to hide him from view. That evened the odds for a while, until Gabriel learned his movement patterns and tackled him into the ocean, pinned him and dragged him back out onto the sand. They were both laughing by the time they managed to get to the towels, collapsing together to warm up on the rough fabric. 

It didn’t take long for them to dry in the intense summer sun, and he eventually opened his eyes to stare at the body pressed to his.

_I could get used to this._ He trailed fingers across Gabriel’s bare chest, smiling when a hand moved up to brush through his hair– though those golden eyes still didn’t open.

Gabriel eventually stretched and sat up, pulling Jack closer and pressing a kiss to his temple. “Sun sets in a couple hours. Wanna eat?”

“Sure.”

“And after that– well, actually. What do you want to do?”

Jack thought about it. “How about, uh, well, you’re the expert.”

Gabriel trailed his hand to Jack’s jaw, tightened his grip and tilted his head. “No. What were you going to say?”

Jack hesitated. “Well. It’s childish.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“...Sandcastle.”

Gabriel winked. “You came to the right person.”

They planned the sandcastle out in a wide ring, and Jack began to dig the moat while Gabriel went to bring armfuls of sand from a bit further down.

“It won’t be easy without any tools.” Gabriel warned as he shaped the central mound.

“When have we ever cared about easy?”

It took them nearly three hours to perfect it, and Jack only realized it was crab-shaped by the last quarter of it.

“Why do you do this to me.” He lamented, shoving the castle-crabs seaglass eyes into place with mock irritation.

_It did turn out really well. I think. I'm not quite an expert. It’s pretty impressive how Gabe managed to plan it so that the tides filled in the moat at just the right time. He_ is _experienced._

“It’s cute when your face gets all red.” Gabriel said for the hundredth time. “Speaking of which, time for you to reapply sunscreen.”

“ _Again_? You know, I worked all my summers in the fields. I’m not a stranger to sun.”

“What can I say? I’m paranoid. _Lita_ will kill me if I let your pasty ass burn.”

“Hey! I worked up a nice tan this summer.”

“... Somewhat.” Gabriel admitted. Jack reapplied the sunscreen anyways.

As they admired their creation, Gabriel turned to him with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Wanna see something cool?”

“Do I?”

Gabriel ignored him, went down a couple meters to where the waves spread across the wet sand. Jack, of course, followed.

“Here.” Gabriel knelt, plunged his hands deep into the sand and came up with a huge handful. He set it aside and went in again, but instead of setting it aside, he shook the wet handful as if attempting to sift it.

And sure enough; small, horrible, wiggling, gray creatures appeared by the dozen, squirming in the sand in Gabriel’s hands.

“Gabriel, what the _fuck_?”

Gabriel grinned at him, held them out. “Sand crabs. Also known as Mole crabs.”

“And they’re… everywhere?”

“Buried along the tidal line. They move with it. Like to stay moist.”

Despite himself, Jack took a handful from Gabriel. They were terrible, and he kind of loved them. “I didn’t know you knew so much about _any_ wildlife.” He said, watching with fascination as they buried into the sand in his hands.

Gabriel seemed startled by his words. “I– huh. I guess so. Never thought of them like that for some reason. Wildlife.” He said, a bit of pride in his voice.

It was irresistibly cute, and it was all Jack could do not to drop the crabs and launch himself at him.

“I’ll give tourist beaches one thing.” Gabriel said as they moved their towels a bit further up the beach to match the tides. “Food carts. I could really use a damn popsicle.”

Jack bit down an innuendo he would regret. “That would be pretty good.” He said. “Still, I’m glad we came here. It’s as beautiful as you said, and it’s… nice to be alone with you.”

Gabriel threw him a look that was, oddly enough, almost _grateful_. “Yeah. Wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

"Even a popsicle?"

"Even a _cherry_ popsicle."

The sun began to set across the ocean not long after, and they sat on their towels up against a huge chunk of driftwood to watch it. Eventually, they ended up on Gabriel’s towel, his back pressed up against Gabriel’s chest and his towel covering them from the cool breeze that had sprung up.

“You’re warm.” Gabriel murmured into his ear as they watched the colors wane down from blue, to orange and red, and finally back to blues and purples.

Instead of teasing him, Jack took one of Gabriel’s hands and kissed it, rubbing warmth into his admittedly cool fingers. “Why are you always cold?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Why are you always warm?”

“...Metabolism?”

Gabriel smiled into his neck. “Mine’s just as fast as yours.”

“I don’t know, then.” He said, and then before he could stop himself. “Well, I’ll always be there to warm you up.”

Gabriel hummed at that, and a long few minutes later, replied almost too softly for Jack to hear. “You’d better keep that promise.”

Jack kissed his hand again in confirmation, and they watched the sun sink beneath the waves and the first few stars appear.

“Oh!” Jack said. “The light pollution here is… we can see stars! Well. Some of them!”

Gabriel shifted behind him, pressing a languid kiss into his neck. “Huh. I guess you’re right.”

“You’ve never noticed?”

“Never had a reason to look up before.”

They spent the rest of the night stargazing and swimming, and a little before midnight called a cab to take them back into town. 

When they got back, however, _Lita_ and her friends were still playing their board game-- In fact, they were _heated_. 

“If you steal my copper deposit one more _fucking_ time– Oh!” _Lita_ stood, greeted them both with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Welcome home. You’re both back early!”

“Oh goodness!” Another old lady said. “Is that you, _Gabi_? I haven’t seen you in so long! You’ve grown!”

Gabriel seemed resigned to his fate as the other elderly women stood and chatted around and about him, pestering him with questions and commenting on his age and stature.

“You’d better introduce us!” One woman said.

Gabriel shot Jack an apologetic look. “‘S Jack.”

_Lita_ sighed. “Gabi.”

“That’s Jack.” Gabriel tried again. “Friend from my squad.”

“Just a friend? One said. “Shame. You two would be so cute together!”

Jack flushed. _I guess they were around often in his childhood. Can’t imagine having to deal with the equivalent of six grandmothers. Though._ He risked a glance at Gabriel. _He turned out to be more than alright._

“That would be _against regulations_.” _Lita_ informed. 

The women understood, then.

One set her hands on her hips. “Are you going to treat this one alright, at least?” 

_He… gets that comment a lot, actually. What exactly did he do back in his teen years?_

“Yes.” Gabriel said. There was a dejected note in his tone that instantly had Jack to his rescue.

“Gabe’s the best.” He supplied. “He’s so sweet, and something of a romantic. Couldn’t ask for better.” Jack winked.

Again, the general consensus to that statement was shock.

“I guess you’ve changed, Gabi.” One said. “Before it was all–”

“Alright.” Gabriel said. “That’s enough. Better get to bed. Nice seeing you all.”

They managed to peel away from the crowd and get back to the shower, where they finally freed themselves of sand.

“Do you–” Jack yawned. “Ah, fuck it. Nevermind. Let’s go to bed.”

“Did I tire you out, Jackie?” Gabriel smirked, settling into bed. “Shame. I had more planned for tonight.”

Jack couldn’t help the laugh. “Should’ve made a move earlier, when I had more energy.”

“Fuck that.” Gabriel said. “Beach sex is terrible. The sand gets _everywhere_ – I mean _everywhere_. Not to mention the salt dries everything out and–”

“Forget I said anything. Sounds like you have a personal grudge.” He teased. “Speaking from sad experience?”

“Yeah.” Gabriel made a face. “I wouldn’t subject _you_ to that.”

“Well.” He yawned again. “I’m way too tired tonight, but I’ll wake you up with a blowjob tomorrow if you want.” Gabriel looked at him, stunned. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Like… really?”

He shrugged, enjoying the feeling of finally holding the power for once. He wasn’t usually that forward, but he was too happy and tired to beat around the bush at all– and it _was_ nice to throw Gabriel off-balance. “Sure.”

“Well.” Gabriel said slowly. “I certainly wouldn’t complain.”

“Great. Night, Gabe.”

“Night.”

He allowed himself to be pulled into Gabriel’s arms, a hand slipping around to rest on his bare stomach. _As weird as it feels, I’m going to miss him breathing onto my neck at night._

He allowed himself to mull over the upcoming mysterious Soldier Enhancement Program for two minutes, then drifted off into sleep.

“Good morning, Jack.” _Lita_ greeted as he entered the kitchen.

“Morning. How’s your crossword?”

She yawned. “Oh, same as always. Any idea on ‘Bad-tempered, crustacean at hand’?

“Gabriel?”

She winked at him. “No. Six letters.”

He thought for a minute. “Crabby?”

“Oh!” She slapped the table. “Of course! Goodness, I _must_ be getting old.”

_Again with the crabs. I think the universe is conspiring against me. Or maybe it’s just the crabs?_

As usual, he spent more time with _Lita_ and then went back to their bedroom– and as he set Gabriel’s thermos on the bedside table, remembered his promise from the previous night. _Well. I have some time. He doesn’t tend to get up for another hour._

And then, realized Gabriel wasn’t in bed. 

_Where the hell?_

He checked the bathroom, but it was empty. _Oh, here we go._

“Hey, _Lita_?” He poked his head out of the room. “Have you seen Gabe?”

“Not this morning.” She said, not sounding particularly concerned.

Further exploration of the bedroom revealed the unlocked window.

_The bastard escaped when I was helping with the crossword._

Or… something worse happened.

But Jack was just being paranoid. Right? It was far, far more likely that Gabriel had gone out to fuck around in his city, rather than… what, have been captured by some terrorist organization they’d pissed off?

Though. Would Gabriel really decide to head off, alone, rather than stay to wake up the way Jack had promised? 

He double-checked his phone. Nothing. Old memories began to swirl through his head, heightening his nerves.

_The mission in Madrid, where Gabe and I figured out that secondary plot at the last minute and stopped it. The leader– Sokolowski? When he escaped, he was furious. He was absolutely memorizing our faces as he boarded his helicopter._

The mission in Marseille. The mission in Odessa. Lyon. Istanbul. Donetsk. Seattle. A very small percentage of their total missions had turned personal, but still far too many. _We did too well sometimes, and now that I think about it, we have more possible enemies than I realized, and all of them are proven to be unstable or selfish or… or at least the type willing to do something to somebody that crossed them. Like Gabriel and I._

He swallowed, checked his phone again. _I’m being ridiculous._

_But what if I’m not?_ They didn’t make enemies of anybody half-rate, being in the S-squad. They angered the dangerous ones– those that could be very creative with their prisoners, if in the right mood.

_I could contact the Captain and ask him to activate the chip in Gabe’s arm. Track him that way. Unless… it’s very likely that whoever it might be could’ve removed it already. They’re certainly intelligent when they want to be. Barring that, I could see if a few of our contacts heard anything…_

And then Gabriel appeared in the window, halted with it half-open.

“Uh, hey Jack.”

His worry melted instantly, leaving him furious.

“Where the hell have you been?”

Gabriel blinked at his tone, hopped through and shut the window. “Leo and David woke me up and asked for help with something. Figured I’d get back before you did.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? Or send a message? Anything?”

“Why would I? Like I said, figured I’d be back.” He winked. “And how could I pretend to be asleep if I had?”

“We aren’t on _base_ , Gabriel! Anything could happen– you can’t just disappear like that!”

Gabriel seemed to realize he was serious. “You thought it was something big.”

“Well, no. But I was very aware that it might’ve been. The chance was _low_ , sure, but it was there.”

Gabriel made to approach him, but he folded his arms and took a step back. Gabriel halted. “Jack, it was nothing. Nothing is going to happen.”

“We don’t know for sure. You can’t stand there and tell me there's a zero percent chance of something happening.”

Gabriel shifted. “The chance is… nonzero.” He said reluctantly.

The anger drained from him, leaving him feeling a bit guilty. “Sorry. I was just, you know, a little scared. We’ve had a lot of threats in the past, and LA isn’t exactly the safest… I mean, everyone in the squad knows you’re from here, and it wouldn’t be hard for somebody to… you know. Just please don’t do that again.”

Gabriel held up his hands. “Deal.” He hesitated. “Does this mean I don’t get a–”

“Obviously.”

As they walked through a less populated part of the city that afternoon, Gabriel moping, Jack caught sight of something unusual out of the corner of his eye. He just managed to, as he turned his head, see somebody being dragged into an alley by a group of people. It took him a moment to realize the implications.

“Gabe.”

“Yeah?”

He grabbed Gabriel by the arm and pulled him in the direction of the problem. “Somebody just- some people just-” It reminded him of his earlier thoughts, of something similar happening to Gabriel– but by more dangerous people. “Dragged somebody into the alley!”

Gabriel grabbed him, halted their progress. “Then what are we doing heading in there?”

“What do you _mean_?”

“It’s not our business. This is LA, Jack. Whoever it is probably deserves it; a drug deal gone wrong or a gang initiation or something.”

“But what if it’s not? What the hell is wrong with you? I got half of my sense of morality from _you_ , and you want to just– if we were in the field, you would already be in there!”

“It’s not that easy. They’re probably armed as well, and we don’t want a target on our back from another gang.”

_Another?_

“And like I said, it’s not going to be anyone innocent. Trust me. I grew up here. It’s drug or gang rel– Jack!”

But Jack had already drawn his pistol and entered the mouth of the alley. It was dimmer than the streets, with buildings towering in close on either side, but it was still easy enough to get a feel of the scene.

Not good.

An omnic was held against the wall by their shirt, oil leaking from the side of their head and their right arm mangled. The cluster of seven scruffy-looking humans in their late teens had all turned to look at Jack, who heard Gabriel enter the alley behind him. He felt a hand on his shoulder an instant later, but it didn’t try to pull him back.

“This doesn’t concern you.” One said, flicking her knife open with menace.

It had been a long time since somebody had tried to scare him with a _knife_ – he almost laughed, keeping his pistol concealed.

“Seems like it does now.” Gabriel said from beside him. “What are a bunch of kids playing with knives for? Public hazard, that.”

“Put down the knife, Dora.” Another whispered, then turned to them. “Sorry, didn’t mean to get you both involved. You guys can, uh, pass. Or whatever you wanted.”

“We stopped in because you pulled some idiot movie stunt and dragged somebody into a dark alley. Horror movie style.” Jack said.

The guy gave them a nervous look.

_Smart kid. Probably can tell that we aren’t just your average citygoers._

“It's just an omnic. Ain’t even human.” The woman said.

_No. Too young. Seventeen? Girl._

“Another omnic hate attack.” He murmured to Gabriel. “This common here?”

“More so than when I left. It’s like that all over the world.” Gabriel said. “Get the hell out of here, you all. Go get into some turf wars or something, with other idiots who signed up for that shit.”

“Oh yeah? Another one said. “Who’s gonna make us? You’re outnumbered.”

He and Gabriel both laughed. Seven untrained scrawny teenagers against two spec ops soldiers twice their weight in muscle.

They were halfway through raising their pistols when the teenagers booked it down the alley, leaving the omnic to collapse on the concrete.

“Crime rate’s risen in the last few years.” Gabriel said. “It’s being blamed on the omnics. _Lita_ keeps me updated.”

“I mean…” Jack snorted. “Can’t have hate crimes without something to hate.”

Gabriel hummed in resigned agreement. “Still. It’s a shame.” He paused. “I guess you were right. About us stepping in, that is. Things have changed. I’ve changed. We can actually do something.”

Jack brushed a fond hand through Gabriel’s hair. He would’ve done more, but he was too concerned with stepping forward to help the omnic up.

“Thank you.” They said. Their… voice box bit was acting up, likely from the head being smashed against bricks.

“No problem.” Jack said. “Do we need to get you to a, uh…”

_Hospital? Mechanic?_ He hasn’t interacted with many omnics. None in their branch of the UN, and very few had lived in the city by their old base. Of course, his hometown had been exclusively human.

“I think I’ll be fine. I have a friend that can patch me up.” They said, feeling their head and pulling back an oil-blackened hand. “Ouch.”

“Want us to walk you?” Gabriel offered. “We’re not doing much.”

The omnic smiled, shook its head. “You seem busy enough being heroes.”

They exchanged uncomfortable glances.

“On second thought.” The omnic said. “I think one of those kids just poked her head around the corner.”

And sure enough, one of the teens that hadn’t spoken ducked back out of sight.

“They’re waiting for us to leave.” Gabriel said in disgust. “More tenacious than they used to be.”

“It’s pretty bad these days.” The omnic admitted. “Third time this month I’ve been cornered, despite everything I try to do to stay safe. Well-lit areas don’t help– hell, even populated areas don’t help. Nobody has stepped in before.”

“Guess this city is used to violence.” Gabriel said softly. “Not that it’s much of an excuse.”

“Maybe it’s for the best.” They said. “I don’t want anybody, fleshy or not, getting hurt for my sake.”

“We’ll walk you home.” Jack said, leaving no room for argument.

They learned more about the state of the city as they walked through town– and though they’d seemed invisible before, they now received stares and death glares walking with the Omnic. Shay.

“Sorry again for the inconvenience.” Shay said, trying for the fifth time to twist their arm back into place and failing. 

“No problem. Jack said. Gabriel hummed in agreeance.

Gabriel hadn’t said much during the walk, leaving Jack and Shay to do most of the talking. That was normal, but instead of it due to the usual grumpy act, he simply seemed deeply troubled by the state of things.

They stopped at a run-down apartment, where they went to the second floor. Shay knocked, then pulled a keycard out of a hatch in their side and opened the door.

“Parker, I’m home!”

A young woman appeared from around the corner, eyes widening when she caught sight of the two of them. Her hand drifted towards her belt, but halted as Shay held up their hands.

“They’re friends. Saved me from another attack.”

The woman, presumably Parker, looked stricken. “Another one? Shay! That’s it. I’m walking you home from work from now on.”

Shay gestured them inside, and they were both too awkward to refuse.

“Parker, you can’t walk all that way four times a day for my sake. You’re too busy here!”

Parker opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “We can talk about this later.” She turned her gaze towards he and Gabriel. “Thank you both _so_ much for what you did. This city is such a nightmare now; it’s hard to find decent people. Do you two want something to drink? I also made some banana bread earlier. It’s, um, a little chewier than usual. Actually, I think the walnut bread might be better.”

“Oh, um.” Jack swallowed. “That’s not necessary. We just wanted to make sure they got home alright is all.”

“Come on.” Parker said. “I hate owing debts to strangers.”

“There’s no debt.” Gabriel said.

After more cajoling, he and Gabriel broke down and accepted a couple slices of walnut bread, taking a seat at the pair’s kitchen table.

“Now let me take a look at you.” Parker said to Shay after everyone settled in. “Your arm is a mess.”

Shay was silent as Parker poked around their head and arm.

“How much oil did you lose?”

“About a pint.”

“Hmm. Give me a minute to grab my toolkit and a new bottle.”

Shay turned to them as Parker left. “Sorry about her. She can be adamant about things.”

Gabriel didn’t say anything, eyes still troubled.

“It's no problem.” Jack said with a worried glance over. “The bread is amazing.”

“Glad you think so!” Parker said, returning with an armful of tools.

“When did the city get this bad?” Gabriel asked.

Parker sighed. She took particular care in selecting a tool before responding. “A couple years ago. Started with a big couple of riots. It’s so _stupid._ ” She said. “Shay never did anything to anyone, but everybody who thinks themselves half-tough around here acts like Shay murdered their darn families.”

As they left a while later, Gabriel turned to Jack and hugged him, pressed his face into Jack’s neck.

“At this rate, there’s going to be war.” Gabriel murmured.

Things lightened up the next day, which they spent again with Gabriel’s old friends. By evening, everyone but Leo had left to their responsibilities.

“Are you sure you want to go here, Gabe?” Leo said.

Gabriel jerked Leo forward by the front of his shirt. “ _Don’t_ call me that.”

Leo grinned. “Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

Leo turned back to the bar. “But like, seriously dude. I told you, Cormac frequents the place nowadays. He’s just gotten more into that life, and he _definitely_ still hates you.”

“I hope so.” Gabriel said. “I kicked his ass how many times?”

Leo grimaced. “Well, be prepared to do some more kicking if he catches sight of you.”

“Wait.” Jack said. “Who’s this Cormac?”

“Old news.” Gabriel said with a wink. “We fought a lot as teens, especially after it came out that I was heading into the military. He talks big, but he’s a coward when it comes down to it.”

“Oh. An ex?”

Gabriel barked out an insulted laugh. “Oh _fuck_ no. We hated each other from day one. My buddies and I obviously never got into it all, but he was into the whole gang scene. Thought it made him tough. It didn’t. You know the bully type. I guess he decided to stick around and keep playing his games, while I was rising through to the ATU.” He said, sounding very pleased with himself.

“So we’re openly welcoming trouble by entering this bar.” Jack said.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “You got it, Morrison.”

He slid an arm around Gabriel’s waist and winked at him. “Oh, I’m _so_ down.”

The bar was a little nicer, a little less crowded than the previous one they’d visited. It was still packed full of people, however. The three of them managed to get a booth near the back, where Jack acquiesced in sliding in first. He supposed it was his turn.

“I’ll get the drinks.” Gabriel said. “Cider, Jack?”

“Thanks, Gabe.”

“Leo?” “Surprise me. Wait, no–”

But Gabriel was already gone, a hint of mischief on his face.

“Fuck.” Leo said.

“You dug your own grave.” Jack advised.

Leo stuck his tongue out. “I tend to. How much longer are you guys going to be in town?”

“Five or six days, I think.”

“Sweet. Um, Jack?” “Yeah?”

“Can you be honest with me? Gabriel sure as hell won’t be.”

“Uh..”

“How dangerous _is_ it all? Like, is it a miracle he’s lived this long or something?” Leo asked. “I’m sorry. I just… really don’t want to end up at his funeral.”

Jack bit down a morbid joke about having enough bits left for a funeral.

_Not the time for gallows humor._

“It’s… dangerous.” Jack said. “Very dangerous. But Gabriel and I are both very good, and we’re watching each others’ backs out there.”

Leo didn’t seem convinced. “Great. So it’ll be a double funeral.”

Jack shrugged. “Somebody has to do it. The people we take down are monsters.”

“But why does it have to be him? Why can’t that idiot just do normal dangerous soldier stuff?”

Jack smiled. “That’s not Gabe’s style.”

“I guess.” Leo said. “Thanks.”

Gabriel returned with the drinks, slid in by Jack and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Hope you didn’t want ice.”

“Dear lord, no. Thanks Gabe.”

“Do you ever accidentally call him ‘Babe’? I feel like that would be a common slip-up”. Leo said, grinning from ear-to-ear at their immediate dual glare. 

Another hour passed uneventfully. Jack didn’t drink much, not wanting to get too messed up, but Gabriel drank a little more– and Leo surpassed them both by far. At around ten-thirty, Gabriel caught sight of something across the room and groaned.

“What?” Leo said.

“Rowan.” Gabriel said.

Leo grimaced. “What is _she_ doing here?” 

“Fuck if I know. Well, she’ll catch sight of us eventually. Better go handle her before she does.”

“Don’t want her to see Jack?” Leo asked.

“Yeah.” Gabriel said. He stood. “Stay here, Jackie. Don’t get into any trouble.”

“Wait, why? Who– Gabriel?”

_Ugh._ He scowled as Gabriel and Leo walked away, terribly curious. _I’ll question him about it later. If he gets to dig into my past like an asshole, then I get to do the same._ He watched as Gabriel approached a pretty, dark-haired woman with his usual grumpy look.

They moved out of sight, and so Jack’s gaze shifted to watch the rest of the bar instead.

Four or five minutes after Gabriel left, a tall, strong-looking man with a retinue entered the bar, and though it was odd that people jumped up to free seats for them, nothing else happened with them, and so he went back to watching others.

Until that man appeared beside him, a charming smile in place.

“Hey. I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. I’d remember that face.”

Jack jumped a bit, realizing the man was talking to him. “Uh, yeah. Just visiting the city.”

“Just visiting? Damn shame.” The man said. He slid into the booth by Jack, a little too close for comfort. “Though… are you? What would a tourist be doing in _this_ bar of all places? Really off-roading it?”

Jack was pretty sure he understood what the man meant. “It was recommended to me.” He tried. _Probably shouldn’t name Gabe here, considering that guy he hates might be around._

The man threw back his head and laughed. “By _who_? You’d better have some strong words with them, because I think they’re trying to give the city a bad name.”

“Well, if it’s as terrible as you say, why is it packed? And why are _you_ here?”

He hadn’t meant it as a compliment, but the man winked. “Bad places are for bad people. There’s a lot of them here.” 

“...Right.” _He’s dramatic. Edgy. Reminds me a bit of Gabe, before I got to know him better._

“Sorry, not trying to scare you off. Quite the opposite, actually.” The man said with another wink. “Say, where are you from? Your accent is… unique.”

_People keep saying that here._ “Indiana.”

The man’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? You’re a long way from home.”

_What does he want?_

“Uh, I guess.”

The man propped his head on his hand. ‘Well, can I buy you a drink?”

“I already have one.”

“Do you?” He gestured to Jack’s glass, which was empty.

“Haven’t ever seen pure alcohol vapor?” he tried. “You just kinda inhale it.”

The man edged a bit closer into the booth. “Oh, handsome _and_ funny? Must be my lucky day.”

_It wasn’t that funny._

_Oh._ Jack realized. _Is he flirting?_

Fuck.

“How much longer are you going to be in town?”

“Just a few days.” He said, moving a bit further back in the booth and desperately trying to think of a way to extricate himself from the situation.

_I don’t want to cause a scene, and I don’t want to be rude… ah, fuck._

“That’s it? Damn.” The man ran a hand through his own hair. “May as well get the most of those few days. Want me to take you on a tour of the city? The night life is just starting up about now.”

“Uh, no thanks.” Jack said.

“Oh, don’t worry.” The man said. “...Actually, you’re right to be worried. The city _is_ dangerous at night, but I’ll be with you– and nobody crosses me.”

“I don’t think–”

“Oh! I’ve been rude.” The man said. “It totally slipped my mind. You must be used to it, looking like that. What’s your name?”

“...Jack. And I really–”

“I like it. It suits you.”

“Er, thanks.”

“Name’s Cormac. Now that that’s out of the way, how about that drink? We can get it to go, if you want that tour.” He winked. “I promise I can be a gentleman.”

Jack froze. _Oh. Well. This is… not optimal. In the slightest._

“I’m almost done for the night, actually.” Jack said. 

Unfortunately, his back was already up against the back wall of the booth, and he couldn’t easily get away from the hand that moved up to lightly grip his chin. “Oh, come on, Jack. It’s not even eleven!”

Jack shifted his gaze to look anywhere else, and caught sight of Gabriel standing a few feet away, caught in a state of half-dismay, half-barely-held-laughter.

_How do you get me into these situations._ He tried to say with his eyes.

_Play along_.

At least, he thought that was what Gabriel was trying to tell him. The whole eye-communication thing was really unreliable, but the playful wink had helped.

“Wow, look who decided to show his face.” Gabriel drawled.

Cormac’s eyes widened, and he shot up and stood away from Jack. “...You’re one to talk. I see that the military didn’t work out for you. I suppose that was to be expected.”

Gabriel laughed, tapping his tags. “Actually, I was assigned to a black program. Completely confidential. I was so good that they gave me a month off before it starts.” 

“Nice attempt to save face.” Cormac said with scorn.

Gabriel’s eyes drifted to Jack, and a smile appeared. “Hey, is this asshole bothering you? He does that to people a lot; don’t take it personally.” He said. He elbowed Cormac aside and took his seat, sprawling into the booth in an easy, fluid motion.

“Name’s Gabriel. Don’t worry, Cormac’s all bark.”

“Jack.” He replied. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Gotta say though, you’re just trading one evil for another– I’m also a sucker for a handsome face.”

“Fine by me.” He said.

Cormac looked first stunned, then furious. “Seriously?”

Jack propped his head on his hand, elbow resting on the table. “You local?”

“Damn right. Grew up here, but left for the military a few years back.” Gabriel said. He moved to slide a thumb slide across Jack’s cheek. “You certainly aren’t local. This city doesn’t have any _real_ blondes.” 

Even though this flirting was fake; an elaborate joke, he found himself melting under Gabriel’s warm gaze. 

“How can you tell mine isn’t faked?”

“Call it a hunch.” Gabriel said with a wink. 

Jack reached out, gently tugged Gabriel’s tags to draw him closer. “Nice hunch. You must be good at what you do.”

“Terrorist hunting, well, at least, I did. Until I was offered this position in a black program.” Gabriel flashed a smile Jack hadn’t seen since early on in the ATU– in private, when they’d both given little insinuations as to their mutual interest and expected the other to dismiss them. “I can tell you about it over lunch tomorrow, if you’d like. Or maybe a midnight trip for ice cream?”

Jack reluctantly released the tags. “I’m sure you have a lot of stories to tell. How about both?”

“Whenever you want, Jack.” Gabriel said.

_I think I like this game_. He swallowed hard at the gaze raking over him.

And then Cormac jerked Gabriel up to his feet by the back of his hoodie– but Gabriel had been expecting it and twisted out of his grip, using the momentum to propel Cormac a few feet away.

“You ruin _everything_ , Reyes.” Cormac snapped. “You think you’re some military hotshot? I’m going to beat you down so hard that you’re left with a twitch.”

“Healthy attitude.” Jack commented.

Cormac shot him a wounded look, obviously still set back by the rejection.

Gabriel laughed. “You can try, but please, be polite enough to wait until _after_ my date tonight. Coming, Jack?”

Jack hopped up out of the booth. He and Gabriel made it less than five feet before throwing simultaneous discreet looks at each other and involuntarily losing it, the both of them laughing so hard that they had to use each other for support to keep standing.

Cormac, to his credit, figured out the situation in three seconds. He reached out and yanked on the sliver of silver just poking out of Jack’s shirt, revealing his nearly identical tags and jerking him forward.

“You’ve made a fool of me for the last _fucking_ time, Gabriel. This is _my_ city now.” Cormac snapped, eyes blazing. “You’re a dead man walking. And _you_?” His gaze turned to Jack. “You think you’re going to poke fun at me and get away with it, too?” He pulled harder, forcing Jack to move forward or risk breaking the chain. There was a cruel glint in his eyes that hadn’t been there four minutes earlier. “You may not be a dead man, but you’re going to learn the hard way that when I want somebody in my bed, they end up there _whether they_ _like it or not_.”

And then Cormac released him, storming through a crowd that parted in his wake.

“...Dramatic guy.” Jack commented after a minute.

Gabriel burst into laughter again.

Once outside, Leo approached them with worry clear in his eyes. “Great show, but _fuck_ , what were you thinking?! He’s not just a kid anymore, Gabriel!”

“Acted like one.” Jack said.

Gabriel hummed in agreement. “Don’t worry, Leo, I can handle him.”

“I’m sure you can. _If_ you don’t underestimate him. Which you are. He’s changed too, and the charismatic bastard has some pretty clever guys working under him.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Gabriel said. “How about that ice cream, Jackie? That was the most fun I’ve had in awhile.”

“... I’m guessing I’m not invited.” Leo said. “See you guys later.”

And then Leo left, with one more worried glance back.

“You’ve got a mark.” Gabriel said later that night as they got into bed, brushing his fingers across bare skin up to rub gently at the back of Jack’s neck.

“Mm? Oh. Not surprised. That Cormac guy tugged pretty hard.”

Gabriel scowled. “The nerve of him threatening you.”

Jack chuckled. “Well, we _did_ humiliate him pretty hardcore.”

“The nerve of him threatening you the way that he _did_.” 

Jack didn’t respond to that, not wanting to give away how uneasy it’d really made him. He didn’t mind death threats– after all, people tried to kill him on a weekly basis or more. It was his job.

However, what the dramatic motherfucker had been insinuating… made him feel sick.

He shuddered subconsciously, only realizing a moment later.

_Fuck._

“Jack? Are you okay? Oh, fuck. I’m sorry. It was stupid to get you involved.”

He twisted in Gabriel’s arms to face him, trying to save face. “What? You’re just cold.” He said, and then winked. “I had fun. We should flirt as a joke more often.”

Gabriel gave him a troubled look. “Jack, I know…”

“I can see why you like getting him worked up, too.” Jack said. “Hilarious.”

The corner of Gabriel’s lips twitched. “Yeah. Hey, how long did it take you to realize he was flirting with you?”

Jack flushed. “Not too long. Fuck off, Reyes!”

Gabriel laughed, sliding his fingers into Jack’s hair. “Shame. It was always funny back in the bar near base. You’d sit there oblivious _all night_ , through the most obvious come-ons– and there were some damn persistent people, too.”

“I still think you’re making that up.” He said. “Just because they were nice doesn’t mean they were flirting.”

“ _Still_? For fucks sake.” 

Jack changed subjects. “So, you two were seriously never a thing?”

“Who? Wait, you mean– me and _Cormac_? Are you kidding me?” He sounded disgusted.

“There was a lot of _tension_.” Jack teased.” “And… you’re not so dissimilar?”

“I can’t believe you would say that to me.”

“You’re both dramatic. _You_ just have something to back it up with.”

“Oh, is that all?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Of course not. Still. Weird guy. You know, Gabe, you surround yourself with the most interesting people– even your rivals."

"Yeah. You most of all."

"Me?"

"I learn something new about you every day."

He smiled. "Not forever, Gabriel. We'll learn everything about each other eventually."

"Ah. Well, that's the thing about people." Gabriel said. "People change. Once you spend so much time with them that you think you know them– they've changed, and then you have to figure out what changed and relearn them over again." Lips met his. "Or fall for them over again."

Jack took Gabriel's head in his hands. "And you call _me_ cheesy. I have no idea how you hide this part of yourself so well from everyone else.”

Gabriel closed his eyes, leaning further into Jack’s hold. “Practice– and you’d better stop ruining it for me. People might start believing you if you keep saying that I know how to be nice.”

“What’s our plan for today? Or are we allowing opportunities to present themselves, again?”

Gabriel poked at his eggs. “Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. We have to wait till evening though. Until then… anything you have in mind?”

Jack blinked. “Me?”

“You.”

“Mm.”

“Anything. I’ll even take you to the shitty tourist stuff if you want.”

“You make it sound so appealing.”

“I try.” Gabriel said. He threw a wistful glance out the window. “I wish motorcycles were legal.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “What brought that up?”

“I’d love to take you up the pacific highway. I did it back when I was a teen, after I bought one cheap from some guy that wanted to move his contraband fast. Beautiful. Never got caught, but had to ditch it in the ocean after a close call.”

The more he learned about Gabriel’s teenage years, the more curious he got. _He really was something of a troublemaker it seems. Though… not the bad kind._

“Well, we could always do it the legal way.” He said.

Gabriel sat back in his chair, folded his arms. “Yeah. Wouldn’t be the same though.” His gaze shifted away. “Well, how about the comic museum or whatever it’s called? Opened a couple months before I enlisted.”

“Comic museum?”

“I heard they have a decent-sized Captain America exhibit.”

“Fuck off.”

After their trip to the National Comic Book Museum, which was amazing, they took another taxi– this time to the ocean.

"I can't believe you didn't buy the artbook." Gabriel said. "You were over the moon about it."

"We're nomads." Jack replied. "Where the hell would I put it?"

Gabriel frowned at that. "Mm. Could've left it at Lita's, I suppose." 

"Ah, wouldn't want to impose." Jack said. He winked, moving a hand to trail fingers across Gabriel's chest. "And anyways, if I really wanted to see a handsome man with muscle, I'd just look over."

Gabriel rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

"If you say so, Jackie."

Jack retracted his hand, leaned against Gabriel's side. Another thing he was going to miss once back in the military. “What are we doing?”

Gabe grinned at him, something almost childish in his excitement. “Santa Monica Pier.”

“What’s there, again? You mentioned a ferris wheel.”

“Ferris Wheel. Roller coaster. Tourist shops. Aquarium. Restaurants. Beach. Arcade. Jet-Skis. Nice park across the road.” 

“Crowded.” Gabriel remarked as they exited the taxi.

Sure enough, the pier was packed full of people– almost a wall of flesh.

“Isn’t that normal?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Of course. Damn tourists.”

“Am I a tourist?” He wondered. “I’m not from here, but I also didn’t bring a selfie stick.”

“You’re not a tourist. You’re here visiting family.” Gabriel said, and started off down the pier.

Jack watched him wander off, speechless. 

_...Family?_

“You coming or not?”

Jack swallowed hard and followed Gabriel into the crowd. 

Though the pier was packed, they still managed to ride the roller coaster– and once they’d waited their hour to get to the front of the line, Gabriel intimidated a couple with a stare to take the front car.

“Back’s faster,” Gabriel said, “But I like seeing everything.”

“And being first.”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at him. “Don’t analyze me, Morrison.” He teased.

“Too late.”

After the roller coaster, which though nauseating had a beautiful view, they wandered further up the pier.

“You hot?” Gabriel asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Say yes.”

“...It’s boiling out?”

Gabriel sighed. “Oh, well, in that case, let’s stop for ice cream.”

“You-” Jack laughed, wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s waist. “You know, you can just say you want ice cream. _I_ already know how cute you are inside.”

“Just let me have this.”

“Granted.”

They stood nearly thirty-five minutes in line for the ice cream, but the wait was worth it. It _was_ hot outside, and the ice cream was incredible. He got strawberry, and Gabriel branched out to mint-chocolate-chip.

“I hate to admit it,” Gabriel said as they hopped up to sit on the edge of the pier barrier. “But your mother’s was better.”

Jack licked a drop that had fallen on his hand. “Well, we used our own milk for it. Doesn’t get much fresher than that.”

“I guess. Too bad you guys didn’t grow sugarcane and vanilla as well.”

“Too bad.” Jack agreed. 

Gabriel turned away from him to face the sea, gaze growing faraway.

_Fuck, he’s beautiful._ There, framed against the slowly darkening ocean and sun just beginning to set, he almost reminded Jack of a god– and when he turned his head back and gave that half-smile, it didn’t help.

“Something on my face?”

He hoped the dimming light hid his blush. _He’d never let me hear the end of it if he could read my mind. Fuck, what am I thinking?_ “Yeah, actually.” He reached up and rubbed a spot of ice cream away.

Gabriel huffed out a laugh. “Thanks.” He said, and then turned back to look at the ocean.

“You good?”

“Yeah.” Gabriel said. “I just missed it, is all. There’s a lot of bad in this city, and… I haven’t done a good job of showing you the good.”

Jack’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? It’s been amazing!”

“Are you kidding? First my friends are idiots and keep being all weird, and we witnessed a damn street-beating, and then that asshole hit on you and threatened you– and, damn, Jackie. I haven’t been the best host.”

“On the contrary. I’m having a wonderful time. Your friends are dorks, and I like them. We _stopped_ a beating, and you have no idea how close I was to jumping you at that bar. In a good way. I don’t think either of us could be really pleased with an entirely peaceful life, you know? It’s been good, Gabe. Really good.”

Gabriel stared at him for half a second, and then jerked his head back around to the ocean. “Sorry. Just feeling like I’m doing a shit job compared to what we did in Indiana.”

“ _Seriously?_ It was terrible there! We–”

They argued back and forth for ten minutes before they were laughing and jokingly trying to push each other into the ocean.

“Oh, fuck.” Gabriel said suddenly. “It’s into sunset! We need to get to that ferris wheel!”

They ducked through the crowds, used a distraction technique from the ATU to slip up in the long, _long_ line. They made it to the front as the sun was dipping below the waves. 

“Your city is _gorgeous_ , Gabe.” He said as the ferris wheel ascended. They were both plastered to the window in a nearly childish gesture. 

_I wouldn’t call it exciting, but damn that view._

The sunset over the ocean really was something.

“You know what happens when we get to the top, right Jack?”

He peeled himself away long enough to send Gabriel a curious look. “What would that be? Never ridden one.”

“You seriously don’t know?”

“Obviously not.”

_In retrospect._ He managed to think as Gabriel pinned him to the glass with a kiss, trailing fingers along his waist. _There’s not much else he could’ve been talking about._

They left the ferris wheel with elevated breath.

They wandered around the pier, playing pop-up carnival games and visiting the occasional shop– as well as a nearly signing up for a class at the trapeze school. Well. _He_ nearly did, anyhow. As the moon rose in the sky, they retreated to the back end of the pier, a little down and away from people. There were no stars, but they would’ve paled in comparison to the twinkling lights of the pier even if they had been visible.

“Thanks, Gabe.” He said, leaning against the barrier to stare across at the water. Gabriel leaned next to him, their combined weight making the old wood creak. “It was nice. _Really_ nice.”

_He might argue, but he still really blew Indiana out of the water. Fuck. After SEP, I need to get my act together._

Gabriel shifted closer, arm trailing around his waist. “No, thank _you_ , Jack. You’re so… different.”

“Different?”

“From everyone. Just everything about you.”

_I don’t know about that._ He opened his mouth to say so, but Gabriel silenced him with a kiss that took his breath away.

“Jack.”

“Yeah?”

“I have something for you.”

He was aghast. “Gabriel, you–”

Gabriel silenced him again. “Don’t start with all the ‘oh, I didn’t get you anything’, or ‘but you brought me here’. 

“But that’s what I was about to say!”

Gabriel shrugged, pulled a box out of his pocket. “I was, uh, buying it the other morning. When I was missing.”

_He was lying, huh?_

Gabriel seemed to sense his thoughts, smiled. “It wasn’t a total lie. Leo and David _did_ ask me for help. I just took some extra time.”

Gabriel handed him the box. It was small, black velvet.

_Jewelry box?_

“It’s nothing major.” Gabriel said hastily. “Just saw it and thought of you.”

He opened it. Resting on the fabric was a tiny flat charm the size of his thumbnail; a brown cow done in an unobtrusive cartoon style.

“Gabriel.”

“I made them put it in a fancy box.” Gabriel admitted with a grin.

“Thank you. I…” It was almost disorienting. Things had changed between them since they’d left the ATU, and for the better. He’d been deadly serious about Gabriel before, of course; he’d left for SEP with him– but after these last few weeks, Jack couldn’t imagine life without him anymore.

_I don’t have a– Oh._ He undid his tag chains, slid the charm on to rest hidden under the tags. It was against regulation for anything to go over; not that they’d been too keen on following the rules before.

“Like I–”

Jack cut _him_ off that time, throwing himself into a hug that was eagerly reciprocated after a moment of pause.

“Thanks, Gabe.”

Gabriel tightened his hold, face in Jack’s neck. “Not a huge deal, like I said.”

Jack pulled away. “It is to me.” He didn’t know how to quite vocalize it, but he knew that Gabriel was the only person who would look at something like that charm and think of him– and for positive reasons.

“Well.” Gabriel sounded embarrassed. “ You did get me that charm for my shotgun.”

“That was a joke! You were so edgy. Who else would attach a plague doctor mask to their weapon?”

Gabriel shot Jack that half-smile that destroyed his willpower. “I still loved it.”

The next morning they spent at the grocery store with a list from _Lita_. Gabriel hadn’t even complained a little when handed the list, unlike the usual when forced into what he called the _boring_ shopping.

After, Gabriel took him to Griffith Observatory on Mount Hollywood. Foot traffic was terrible, and it was crowded– but the observatory itself was amazing. They walked through the halls, examining the exhibits and reading the facts lining the stone walls. Gabriel was surprisingly interested, and Jack was of course fascinated.

_I know more and less than I thought._

They then went to a planetarium show, where Jack quietly quizzed Gabriel on the stars, planets, and constellations. Jack was delighted by how much he’d memorized from their stargazing at the mountains near base and at the beach. It reminded him of their little adventures to the nearby city when in the ATU; where they’d sat on city steps with street cart food, and Gabriel had questioned him bits of spanish as they watched people walk by.

They stayed to watch the stars rise and to see the lights of the city blink on from the mountain, and then they’d headed back down and to another bar. Thankfully not the last they’d gone to.

“Don’t you ever get tired of drinking?” He teased as they took a seat at the bar for once. This one was crowded, but not nearly as much as the others they’d gone too– and it was a bit nicer, as well. 

Gabriel slid a hand into his hair, tugged just enough to be painful. “Just trying to visit a few old places, Jackie.”

“You sure did hang out a lot of bars.” He said.

“I sure was here for a long time. Eighteen years, even.”

“But Gabriel.” He said innocently. “You couldn’t consume alcohol. The drinking age has been eighteen for over a decade now!”

Gabriel just rolled his eyes.

They ordered their drinks and talked for over an hour, Gabriel telling a few stories about things he’d gotten up to with his friends. They weren’t legal things, generally, but they tended on the good-natured side of mischief. Breaking into buildings for fun rather than theft, for example. 

No. Gabriel certainly wasn’t an angel, but he was a good person. As much as he hated when people said so.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. Bathroom.” Gabriel said. His eyes narrowed. “Last time I left, you managed to get into trouble. Please, avoid doing so for three minutes.”

“I’ll do my best, but hey. Trouble finds _me_.” Jack said.

Gabriel huffed. Left.

And sure enough, about thirty seconds after Gabriel left, trouble found him.

“You’re with Gabriel?” 

He turned, and saw the pretty, dark-haired woman from the previous bar staring at him.

_What was her name again? Rachel? Rowan._

_Fuck._

“I’m visiting the city with him, yeah.” Jack said slowly.

She gave him a critical stare, looking him up and down.

“Why?”

“...Why? Why not?”

“Who are you?”

Jack stood. He had nearly four inches on her, though she was tall for a woman. “I don’t see how that’s your business. Who are you?”

“Rowan. There. Now your turn.”

“I’m pretty certain you weren’t just asking for my name.”

Rowan glanced towards the bathrooms. “Look. can we talk for a minute? If he sees me, I’m not going to get another word to you.”

Jack hesitated. He was _so_ curious– after all, Gabriel had diverted the conversation every time Jack had tried to ask about her.

Then again, it would be an idiot move to walk away with somebody he didn’t know, especially in a city. According to Gabriel.

And yet. The mystery drew him in.

“He’d kill me.” Jack said, trying to dissuade himself more than her. “Plus, he’d freak out if I went missing.”

“Why? You’re an adult.” She said. “Well, we’d better hurry then.” 

Jack hesitated for two seconds, then sighed and followed her out of the bar. _I’m armed._

She turned the corner, and he followed. 

“Alright.” She said, facing him. “So, are you two a thing?”

“That’s… complicated.”

She didn’t seem impressed with that answer. “I’m trying to do you a favor here, blondie.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“You didn’t give me a name.” She pointed out.

“...Jack. And a favor?”

“Yeah.” She said. She scowled, but her shoulders were tense with more than anger. “Just a warning. You don’t _seem_ like a terrible person, so I figured I would try to get through to you. Gabriel? Yeah, he’s hot, and he has that whole bad boy vibe going– but he really isn’t worth it. He’s an asshole.”

“I suppose you’re speaking from experience?”

She rolled her eyes. “Obviously. I dated him for like, a year? Year and a half? Way too long. I tried to warn Nathan, but he fell for that same trap after me. Broke up with Gabriel after like six months– smarter than me. Then Gabriel left. And now you’re here with him. Supposed I’d try again.”

Jack blinked. “Gabriel isn’t perfect, but… I really don’t see what the problem with him is. He’s been great as long as I’ve known him.”

“And how long is that?”

“Year and a half or so. We were both in the same unit.”

Her brow furrowed. “And how long have you been together?”

“A bit less than a year?”

“And he’s been _great_?”

“Yeah. I mean sure, he’s edgy, and he’s an asshole to pretty much everyone else… but after we got close, he’s been sweet.” He hesitated, ignoring her dumbfounded look. “But people have been saying things. People like you. What did Gabe _do_ back then?”

Her jaw dropped. “He lets you call him _Gabe_?”

“Yeah?”

She leaned back on her heels. “Maybe he has changed. I tried once like a month into our relationship, and he was _not_ happy. I don’t think he talked to me for a week.”

“It took awhile for him to stop bitching about it.”

She laughed a little under her breath. “Well, maybe it’s just you, then. He wasn’t… well, he could’ve been worse, that's for sure. Still an asshole. There was very little emotion in anything he did, concerning me or others. It was pretty much all about the sex, or other benefits like that. He was possessive, but you never really got the feeling that it was because he cared about _you–_ more his own image. He never got violent more than he did with his own buddies, but his presence left you on edge more than anything else. Being around him was like walking on eggshells; not afraid that he'd hurt you, but more that he'd look at you in that _why are you wasting my time_ way he was so good at. The one that made you feel like a worthless burden. There was the occasional good moment that left you wishing for more, kept you with him on the off-chance that he would smile at you again like that– but it never got better, and you were never happy. You would end up asking him to go see a movie often, not only because it was one of the few things he would agree to do with you, but because you could pretend for a few fleeing minutes that it wasn't the movie he was excited about; but spending time with you. It was abusive. That’s it. You never felt special, or like you mattered, or that you were anything more to him than just a dutifully filled position of significant other.”

It was so different, so wildly antithetical to his own perception of Gabriel that it was disconcerting.

_Are we talking about the same guy?_

Because with Gabriel, Jack felt like he was the only person in the world that mattered. He felt like he could really be himself, like Gabriel was the one person he could love and trust unconditionally and get the same in return. Jack was never happier than when he was with Gabriel.

Yeah, Gabriel could be a little controlling, but that was to be expected after all the scares they had out in the field. 

“I can see from your face that he isn’t like that with you.” Rowan said. She sounded almost… sad. Wistful. “That’s good.”

Jack raised a hand, rubbed a thumb across the cow charm under his tags. “He’s changed. That’s for sure.”

Her expression didn’t change. “Or maybe, he’s just finally found somebody worth his time and effort."

“I doubt that’s the case.” He said. _If that were so, he’d have dropped me right after Indiana._

She gave him an odd look. “You don’t really have much of a self-es–”

And then, Gabriel’s hand rested on his shoulder and jerked him back a few steps.

“What the _fuck_ , Jack? I left you for five fucking minutes. I _specifically_ requested that you not get into any trouble.”

He twisted, winked. “Trouble findeth me."

Gabriel scowled at him, and then narrowed his eyes at Rowan. “What are you doing here?”

“I _was_ drinking.” She said, and then narrowed her eyes in return. “You didn’t mention you brought anyone with you a couple nights ago.”

“Because I didn’t want you to go bother him. Like you _did_.”

“Bother him? You mean tell him all about how you treated me. And Nathan. And Isabelle. And–”

“Shut up.” Gabriel said. “I get it. You don’t need to worry about him. Go back inside, Jackie.”

“Why?” He said. “So you can hide something else from me?”

Gabriel gave him a cold look. “What, like you hid the entire thing with Fi–” he cut himself off, regret instantly marring his features.

Jack froze. Opened his mouth, closed it again.

"Jack, I-- I didn't mean--"

He turned on his heel and stormed off into the city, not able to bear hearing another word. Another confirmation that he’d been right.

"Jack!"

He skirted a nearby wall, ducked into an alley, clambered up a building and jumped a few rooftops. Second nature. Somewhere Gabriel couldn’t find him.

_Am I in the wrong here_? He finally slumped down against an air conditioning unit, wrapped his arms around his knees and stared into the blank, dark gray sky of the Los Angeles midnight.

_I did hide it from him. He has every right to be angry. Should’ve told him before he wasted time with somebody as fucked up as me. I mean, how am I not over it yet? It’s been so many years, and I still froze when I saw Finn. I still couldn’t stand up to my dad._

_Well. I stood up to him in the end. But Gabriel was there. It didn’t really count, and it wasn’t about what mattered most._

He took a deep breath. _He doesn’t owe me anything about that part of his past, because it doesn’t affect me. That part of mine affects him. I should’ve told him a long time ago._

_He may not have been the best in the past, but I think I’m the terrible one in this relationship._

Jack leaned back, rubbed his face. He silenced his phone after the first call, and disabled the buzzer after the third.

It was terrifying how alone he felt, after being with Gabriel nearly twenty-four hours a day for the past few weeks.

When he woke up the next morning, he realized his mistake.

He was still on the roof– and not only was it late morning, but his phone had more missed calls than he wanted to count.

_Fuck. He’s going to kill me._

_I’m going to kill me._

He stood and stretched, aching from the terrible sleeping position, and nimbly made his way down the building and out onto the streets. He didn’t waste time calling, but instead went straight to _Lita_ ’s house.

He felt terrible– not only physically, but he’d never felt more guilty in his life. After all, Jack had known Gabriel was missing for about six minutes the morning he’d climbed out the window, and he’d gone through dozens of horrible situations and nearly full-blown panic. Considering Jack’s many, _many_ dumbass rural moves in the small city by the base, at this point after a full night of not hearing from him, Gabriel was probably…

He walked the rest of the way in silence. There was no indication that anybody was home, but there never was, so he knocked.

The relief on _Lita_ ’s face just made him feel all the lower. 

“Jack. It’s good to see that you’re alright.” She said, worry leaching from her tired features. It was soon replaced by a sense of disappointment in him. “You worried him a lot, you know.”

His spine prickled. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I… well. I fell asleep on the roof of a building.”

She shook her head. “Gabi was taking a nap before heading out again. I don’t know what he did to make you head off on your own, but I think you’ve punished him enough.”

“I didn’t…” _I didn’t mean to_. But the words died in his throat, and he headed down the hallway to the closed door at the end.

Just as he reached out to open the door, his hand brushing against the knob, it flung open. Gabriel almost ran into him, eyes widening at the sight.

“Jack?!” “...Hey, Gabe.”

“Where have you _been_? I– was– I thought– you didn’t answer your fucking _phone_ , and it’s been nearly twelve hours–” The intense relief in his voice heightened to leftover panic, and then morphed into fury. He grabbed Jack by the front of his wrinkled shirt and dragged him into the bedroom, slammed the door shut and then shoved him against the wall hard enough that his head hit the drywall.

“Gabriel, I–” He winced as Gabriel pulled him away and slammed him into the wall again, both of his fists buried in Jack’s shirt.

“You can’t fucking _do_ that to me! Do you have any idea how dangerous this city can be? If Rowan found you, then Cormac certainly could– and– he threatened– and not to _mention_ the dozen fucking terrorists you worried about the other day alone! I– I thought–”

Jack realized with horror just how close Gabriel was to tears.

“I’m sorry.” He said, reaching out to brush his fingers across Gabriel’s cheek.

Gabriel deflated, took a deep, shaking breath and collapsed into Jack’s arms.

“Jackie… I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have said… and I shouldn't have tried to… you have a right to know who you're with–" Gabriel shuddered sounding miserable. "I was terrible back then, I know. I'm really, _really_ trying to be good with you, and I'm doing such a fucking terrible job, but I don't know what else to do. I'm just like my mother, after _everything_ , and there's no excuse. I was terrible to them; I didn't– I thought love was the biggest scam in the fucking world, and relationships were just a trap or easy sex or something. It just never made sense and everybody who claimed they loved somebody seemed so miserable, and there was so much violence around it, and–"

Jack led them gently towards the bed as Gabriel gave a choked sob, refusing to move his head from Jack's neck.

"I don't know why I even _tried_ – I thought– I thought I could be better with you– you were just so different, and I finally understood all of that bullshit about caring for somebody, but of course I fucking _ruined_ it and hurt you just like the others. _Worse_ than them, because I dragged you along to this SEP and– and– I just don't know why I thought I could be _good_ for once. I'm just like my parents and I _hate_ it, and there's nothing I can do– and now I'm going to lose you, and I– I don't know what to do without you anymore–"

And as the words dissolved into sobs, Jack wordlessly ran his fingers through Gabriel's hair.

_This trip home hasn't been easy for either of us. I've never really seen him cry._

"I'm not going anywhere," he murmured as the heaving breaths began to slow. "You're _not_ terrible. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me by far, and I don't care what your idiot teenage self did. I care about _you_. Now. And I couldn't ask for a better… whatever we are."

Gabriel's grip tightened. "You couldn't ask for better because you don't _know_ better." He whispered. "You don't have a lot of healthy relationships to look back on."

Jack sighed. "More than you, apparently. Gabriel, we aren't… we aren't regular people, and we aren't going to get by with a perfect, peaceful life. People like us… need a little blood sometimes. If you're a little too controlling, and I'm a little too happy that you're a grumpy asshole so I have all to myself, then that's fine. It's not completely healthy, but we aren't healthy people. We _can't_ be, with what we do and what we go through. I'm not an expert, as you pointed out, but it seems to me that what matters the most is that we help each other; we're good for each other. Being with you makes life a dozen times more worth living, and I wouldn't give that up for anything. Wouldn't give _you_ up for anything."

Gabriel didn't say anything for a long time, Jack's shirt still tangled in his fingers.

"Cheesy." Gabriel said, his voice hoarse from the tears. "But. You might be right. About some things. I'm a lot worse for you than you are for me."

"I don't think so." He said, leaning down to press a kiss to Gabriel's forehead. "It balances out. It's how we roll. But… Gabe. Why are you talking about your parents? I thought you never met them?"

Gabriel's head fell back to Jack's chest.

"I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it."

"... Never did meet them, but _Lita_ told me a little once I was old enough. Terrible people. Drug addicts, alcoholics, and both abusive assholes to each other. Physically and emotionally and pretty much every way. I'm ridiculously lucky that I somehow was born without any issues, because I doubt my mother went sober for the pregnancy. They didn't give a fuck about me, of course. As soon as they learned they wouldn't get any extra government benefits from me, they dropped me off with _Lita_ and vanished for good. Good fucking riddance. I had a _damn_ good childhood without them." Gabriel swallowed. "I'm not talking about this for pity or anything, because I had it pretty good growing up. But my parents were terrible to each other, and though he died before I was born, my grandfather was terrible to _Lita._ And at least one of each of their parents were horrible to the other. There's not a single fucking healthy couple in my entire family line, and– and I'm _terrified_ that I'll end up the same way, and– even worse, I'm terrified that you'll be okay with it. _Lita_ told me a little bit about what my grandfather did. I won't say much because the old bat is still kicking and its not mine to tell, but her friends told me more. It was bad. Real bad. But she smiles when she talks about him, and says that he had a good heart deep down and was just _troubled_. Says she loved him and always will. It's just so– I just hate it. I hate the thought of hurting you, and I hate the thought of you _letting_ it happen even more."

And Jack didn't know what to say; because deep down, he knew that if the choice was leaving or letting it happen… he wouldlet it happen.

"I'm not a pushover, Gabe." He finally said. "I'm never going to leave you, but I'd set you straight if you needed it."

Gabriel took a deep breath. Nodded. "Thank you, Jack. I'm… sorry for getting so worked up. I just…"

Jack pressed a kiss to the top of his head that time. "I think… we both needed to talk. It was a good idea; this trip to our hometowns. Rough. But good."

"It was. I've never really said any of that out loud. It was kind of…"

"I get it." Jack said. "And, sorry again about last night."

Gabriel stiffened. "I forgot. I'm supposed to be mad at you. Where did you even go?"

"I, um, fell asleep on a rooftop."

He could tell Gabriel was doing his best not to laugh– but failed. Loudly. When they went back out to the living room, Lita was smiling. They had lunch, and then spent the afternoon helping with the garden and dinner.

“Hey Jack, Leo just texted me.”

Jack lifted his head from the pillow, sprawled across the bed. He’d nearly been asleep. “Mm?”

Gabriel trailed an absentminded hand across his back, down to the hem of his shirt to press unusually warm fingers against the exposed sliver of bare skin. “Said he saw online that The Iowa gives free entrance to anyone serving in the military.”

“We work for the UN.” Jack murmured.

“Still counts.”

His brain slowly came awake as he yawned, shifting closer to loop an arm around the leg pressed to his side. He was tempted to sit up, but didn’t want to displace the comfortingly rough, calloused fingers on his lower back. “We don’t have time to go to Iowa.”

Gabriel snorted. “ _The_ Iowa, Jackie. Do states usually require entrance fees?”

Maybe his brain _wasn’t_ full awake.

“...Ship?” He tried.

“There you go. The USS Iowa.” Gabriel said, sounding amused. His fingers continued to trace along the skin of his back, ghosting just under Jack’s waistband to pull away a moment later.

“What’s The Iowa doing in California?”

“Iowa’s landlocked.”

“...It’s in the water?”

“Duh.”

Jack rolled his eyes and sat up, falling right into Gabriel’s trap. He didn’t have the energy to fight as he was pulled into Gabriel’s arms, the same rough fingers moving to gently rub his cheek.

“Well, are we going?”

“It’s something to do.”

“Oh, my.” Jack teased. “Aren’t you always saying that it’s impossible to run out of things to do in LA? Already pulling at straws?”

“Grasping.”

“What?”

“It’s grasping at straws, Jack. Grasping.”

“Same thing!” Jack huffed, twisting in Gabriel’s arms to wink at him.

Gabriel didn’t look impressed. “No. Pulling straws is the thing where you cut up sticks and whoever gets the shortest one is fucked over.”

“That’s _drawing_ straws, Gabe.”

“That’s--” Gabriel paused. “Fuck.”

Jack laughed, joined a moment later by a chuckle.

“So what’s up with the ship, anyways? Museum?”

“Yeah. World War Two, up to the Cold War. Decommissioned decades ago, in 1990. Supposedly pretty neat.”

“Sounds like it. I mean, I’m down. Why did your buddy even tell us about it? He want in or something?”

He felt Gabriel shrug.

“Dunno. He just mentioned he saw it. Maybe he figured we would be interested, being military and all? Still not his usual. I asked if he wanted to come, but he declined. Said he was busy with his job.”

Jack hummed. “Nice of him, then. So, are we going?” “Sure.” Gabriel said, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck.

Sure enough, their military status got them through the doors of the museum without a single cent paid.

The ship was big, but nowhere near as big as modern military ships. Not that they’d been on any during their time in the S-squad. They wandered through the metal halls and looked over exhibits, laughing with each other at the old 20th century military gadgets. The ship somehow seemed larger on the inside, and though there weren’t many people in comparison to other tourist attractions they’d been to, they still passed groups of schoolkids, lone history enthusiasts, and bored-looking teens with their families.

“Gabe.”

“Yeah?” Gabriel finished poking at the helicopter’s machine gun, walked over to where Jack was staring up at the cockpit.

“Get in.”

“What?” Jack raised an eyebrow. “It says we can touch it.”

“Yeah, but why me?” “I want a picture.”

“Morrison, are you serious?” Gabriel scoffed. “What are you, a soccer mom?”

“This is non-negotiable Reyes, attacks on my personal character or not.”

A passerby eventually noticed their bickering and offered to take a picture of both of them. Gabriel finally relented, and they clambered into the helicopter.

“It’s strange.” Jack said as they poked around long-disconnected buttons and switches.

“What is?”

He put on his best innocent look, fighting desperately to hide a grin. “Never figured it would be so difficult to get you into a _cockpit_.”

They moved into the lower levels of the ship after that. After another hour or so of exploring, Gabriel received another text from Leo.

“Ugh.” Gabriel said.

Jack let Gabriel go a pace ahead, slipped behind him and wrapped arms around his waist. Gabriel tilted the screen so that he could read it better.

**ayoo Gabriel, come to the bottom of the ship dude we got a goin away party goin and stuff for you and your totally just friend**

“How did they even manage that? I don’t think they allow parties in military museums.” Jack said.

“Fuck if I know.” Gabriel said. His brows were furrowed. “They must have gotten cheesy over the years though. Damn. A going away party? We always joked those were for idiots.” He pocketed his phone. “Better get it over with.”

Jack followed, realizing a moment later that he’d idly began to rub the cow charm around his neck again. He quickly drew his hand away, hopefully before Gabriel had seen.

“Can’t wait to get kicked out of the museum.” He teased.

Gabriel just sent him a half-amused glare, the corner of his lip twitching, and kept walking.

The ship was something of a maze, and the lower down they went, the fewer people there were. As they approached the final steep staircase down, he found the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up.

“Creepy.” He said.

They exchanged glances. Jack could tell Gabriel felt the same way.

It wasn’t dark at the bottom of the staircase, but it seemed dimmer despite it likely being the same sort of light as above their heads.

_It’s just because nobody else is around._ He tried to reason. _It’s a creepy, ancient ship that could totally be in one of Gabe’s horror movies._

“I can’t tell if this is my horror movie instinct, or my soldier instinct.” Gabriel admitted at his side.

Jack stared down. “I don’t think your friends are down there.” He said.

“We’d have heard some idiots yelling by now.” Gabriel agreed.

They were both silent, on-edge.

“Are we being stupid?” Jack finally asked.

“Maybe.” Gabriel said. “But even if we aren’t, they might have Leo. He may not be the smartest guy in the world, but we still grew up together.”

_They._

The only person they’d pissed off in the city was…

“The overly dramatic idiot.” He said.

Gabriel snorted. “Yeah.” And then. “Shame about our pistols.”

They’d had to leave them at _Lita_ ’s. As a federal museum; the ship had a weapons policy.

Oddly enough, Jack was excited. He’d _dearly_ missed being in action. Unfortunately, that excitement was tempered with fear of the unknown. Gabriel always said that his old nemesis had no bite to his bark, but people changed. How far was the man willing to go to get back for years of rivalry? A simple beating? Murder?

They were two damn good soldiers, but unarmed and unarmored, likely outnumbered, in an unfamiliar location with a potential hostage.

“Stay here, Jack.” Gabriel said. “I’ll see what my dumbass friend got himself into.”

They weren’t even entertaining the prospect that it could simply be a party any longer. Instinct had kicked in, and years of training was taking over.

“If you ever insult me like that again, I am absolutely going to punch you in the throat.” Jack threatened.

Gabriel sent him a wounded glare, but didn’t argue.

_Sure Gabe, just go throw yourself into danger while I wait about up here. Not like we’re a team or anything. Jackass._

After Gabriel set up his phone so that an automatic message for help would be sent in fifteen minutes if not stopped, They headed down the stairs; he following Gabriel due to the narrow structure. It was really like being out in the field again-- but unarmed in every way; including informationally.

“We really can’t stay out of trouble for fifteen minutes, can we?” He whispered.

Gabriel huffed out the barest of laughs in reply.

They looked out for tactical advantages as they went, but there was nothing. It was a short, straight shot into an open room that had once likely stored cargo, but now only held a handful of large crates. The lights were dimmer, here, and there were no exhibits.

_The stairs above were likely roped off._

_Were._

And sitting on a smaller metal crate that was old enough to be an exhibit itself, was Leo. He wasn’t facing them, but his shoulders were hunched in a way that indicated fear.

_Hostage_. Was indeed the first word that came into Jack’s mind. He’d seen that same hunch dozens of times out in the field.

The ones hunching hadn’t always made it out unharmed-- or alive.

“Figures.” Gabriel said aloud. He sounded bored. “You’re not fooling anyone, you know that, right? That was the lamest excuse I’ve heard. Seriously? You think they’d throw me some shitty going-away party? Where’s your creativity?”

Though Gabriel’s voice was only a bit louder than normal, it carried heavily in the metal crypt of a room. They were fully submerged this deep in the ship.

There was a shifting of movement in the darkness to their left, and as Gabriel turned to look for its source, Jack turned to his right to watch their backs. Two men emerged from behind a crate, one with a pistol in his hand and the other with what looked to be a taser. Neither were aiming for anyone yet, but it was certainly categorized as a danger. 

“Gabriel, you came! Oh, and you brought Jack. Convenient.” Came a dramatic voice to the left. 

After noting everything necessary about the men to their right, he finally turned to the left with Gabriel.

Sure enough, Cormac himself had emerged from behind another one of the large crates.

_Both of them, I swear. Gabriel can at least pull off the brooding, mysterious badass. Because he is. Well. Not that he’s quite as mysterious to me anymore. This guy is trying to make himself into a Bond villain, when really he’s that mook that gets killed off about ten minutes into the movie._

Was it an LA thing? Or was it just coincidence that the both of them thought they were edgy movie protagonists?

_No. That’s another difference between them. Gabe is trying to be the edgy movie protagonist, while this asshole is trying --and failing-- to be the edgy movie antagonist._

“Duh.” Gabriel said. “The fuck do you want? We’re busy people, you know.”

It was more amusing than anything else; the two of them playing into the drama without seeming to realize it. If they were in the field, Gabriel would’ve long since done the sensible thing and signaled for them to start combat.

It was made even more amusing with Cormac’s next, disgustingly cliche words.

“I want you on your knees.”

Jack couldn’t help the snort that time.

Cormac glared at him for half a second before returning his gaze to the one that mattered to him.

“Nice.” Gabriel said. “Which film did you steal that line from?”

_What an absolute hypocrite._

Another man stepped out from behind a crate near Leo, pistol levered at his chest.

_How many of them are behind these crates?_

“You don’t have to.” Cormac said. “But your friend here will pay for it if you don’t.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to shoot him, dumbass. Not only are you on federal land that will be fully investigated, but if you killed him, what leverage would be left to convince _us_ not to kill _you_?”

“Oh dear.” Cormac tutted. “You _are_ outnumbered four-to-two, you realize? And the four happened to be armed, while the two are not? As for not killing Leo, well, I’d just pin it on you of course. Career and life ruined just like that.”

“A couple things wrong with your plan. For starters, you’re not _nearly_ smart enough to pull that off. Second, if Jack and I were going to murder somebody, the government would be fully aware that we would do it in a hell of a better way than this.”

Cormac raised an eyebrow. “And the being-outnumbered bit?”

“You were serious about that?” Gabriel laughed. “Has that guy of yours there even held a gun before today? His safety is on. No, you guys aren’t a threat.”

The man in front of Leo hastily switched his safety _on_. It had been off.

_Risky move, Gabe. Nice one though. They really aren’t very smart-- or maybe just nervous._

“And what do you think, Jack?” Cormac said.

“I think you’re both dorks.” Jack informed.

Gabriel and Cormac shot him eerily similar glares.

He cracked another smile, ignoring the sudden cold press of a barrel on his back. It had been expected. Though Jack trusted Gabriel to lead the situation; keeping an eye out for a signal, he still didn’t make any sudden moves. Those inexperienced with guns were like adolescent snakes-- jumpy enough to use their venom without cause, and unable to properly understand and control it.

The sense of danger had almost completely faded away by this point.The situation was almost comical, after having spent over eighteen months fighting some of the most dangerous men in the world. Of course, it was stupid to think that way. Men with guns were men with guns, and it only took one bullet to end your life.

Well. One well-placed bullet. Jack wasn’t sure if any of them were capable of making more than a lucky shot-- but again, a lucky shot would be that one bullet.

So he did his best to keep his guard up, despite the humor of the situation.

There was a noise from the hall, and Cormac gestured for one of his men to check it out. The man with the taser left. 

“Three-to-two.” Gabriel said with a smile.

Cormac shoved his pistol under Gabriel’s chin, and Jack’s heart nearly stopped. He _knew_ Gabriel had it under control, but-- one fucking twitch of the finger would have Jack going to a funeral, and then possibly prison. If he survived.

The man behind him had noticed him stiffen, and laughed. “I think you’re scaring him, boss.”

Cormac glanced over, raised an eyebrow and returned his attention to Gabriel. “Wow. There’s somebody out there who would actually care if you died?”

“Apparently.” Gabriel deadpanned. “Must sting knowing you’ll never experience that, huh?”

Cormac’s gaze darkened. “It’s probably pretty tough to faze your buddy there, huh Gabriel?”

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed, calculating.

“Probably not as tough as it is to faze you.” Cormac continued. “But still. Seeing you in danger got him pretty riled up.”

Jack scoffed under his breath. _I barely moved! I bet it didn’t even show on my face._

Cormac lowered his pistol to rest above Gabriel’s heart. “What would it take to _finally_ faze you? I haven’t seen you agitated since we were what, fifteen? What am I going to have to do here?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes, glanced over at Jack. “I’m not _this_ dramatic, Jack.”

Jack snorted. “Oh, give it up Reyes. You absolutely are.”

And Cormac, seeming furious at not being taken seriously, gestured to the man behind Jack.

Not a moment later Jack was smashed over the head with the pistol-- but with the hesitance of a slightly nervous man who didn’t quite know how far to go, and so didn’t go nearly far enough. It didn’t even break the skin, and so Jack turned his head and gave the man behind him an annoyed look.

“Ow.”

He’d had several chances to disarm the man behind him, but Cormac still held his gun to Gabe’s chest. Not to mention, as much as he teased Gabriel, he didn’t want to ruin the cheesy childhood drama dialed up to eleven playing out in front of him. Gabriel had certainly seemed to be having fun; up to this point at least.

Gabriel gave no indication that the scene had bothered him, but for the slight twitch in his left fingers-- which Jack knew meant that he was keeping himself from balling his fists.

“Really?” Cormac said, sounding disappointed. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You don’t really care about anyone, do you? I guess he’ll learn that eventually.”

Jack rolled his eyes alongside Gabriel, that time.

Another idea lit up in Cormac’s eyes. “Well, that didn’t bother you.” He said, and then warned, “If you make a move, your friend over there is as good as dead.” He stepped away from Gabriel and walked the couple paces over to Jack; the man who’d been behind him retreating to stand near a crate.

_Not a great threat, considering the guy by Leo has his safety on-- and judging by the look on his face, he wouldn’t want to murder anybody on government property anyways._

This entire thing was so badly planned out that it was almost refreshing. _I can see why Gabriel pisses this guy off._

It was almost insulting how Cormac didn’t bother to hold a gun to Jack as he stepped behind him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

_Does he not realize I kill people for a living, too?_

“Do you have any idea how bad at this you are?” Gabriel said, echoing Jack’s thoughts.

“Cute, _Gabe_.” Cormac teased. His grip tightened on Jack’s shoulder as he shifted his attention. “Do you remember what I told you the last time we talked, Jack?”

Jack pretended to think. “Nope. I kind of forgot about you to be honest.”

He could practically feel the annoyance radiating from behind him, and winked at Gabriel.

Gabriel didn’t react to that either, except again for another single twitch-- this time at the corner of his lips.

Jack froze as unfamiliar fingers brushed the back of his neck, and it was all he could do not to take Cormac down then and there. He didn’t want to be the one to ruin Gabriel’s fun.

“I doubt that. There’s still a mark here.” Cormac said, fingers wrapping around his tags again to pull the other way, restricting his airflow.

It would be so comically easy to break out of the man’s hold on him, but again-- that was apart of the ridiculous fun of the situation.

“And-- is that a _cow_?”

The incredulousness of Cormac’s voice made Jack laugh, and Gabriel even broke into a smile.

“Duh.” Jack said, pulling back an inch so he could breathe and talk.

Cormac finally finished his earlier line of questioning. “I told you that I’d have you in my bed whether you like it or--”

The instant Cormac’s hand touched his hip a little too comfortably, Jack forgot everything about the situation and rammed his elbow directly into the man’s solar plexus, and when Cormac doubled over in pain, Jack twisted and kicked him down, swept the gun into his hand a moment later.

He realized what he’d done.

“Fuck. Sorry, Gabe.”

Gabriel, who was walking over, raised an eyebrow. “Why are you apologizing?”

Jack glanced down to Cormac, who was still cursing on the floor. “I ruined your b-rated movie drama.” 

“Ah, I was getting bored anyways. He hasn’t changed a bit. Kinda pathetic.” Gabriel said, reaching around to feel the back of Jack’s head. “Fuckin’ had that guy pistol whip you though.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “That was a pistol tap. I’ve been properly pistol whipped before, and trust me, that guy did not have his heart in it.”

Speaking of which.

He glanced around, but the man was missing. The only people left in the room were Leo, the man who had been holding him hostage, Cormac, and he and Gabe.

_Literally zero true loyalty in his group._

It was actually almost pitiable. 

“Still.” Jack said. “Sorry. I’m sure you’d have liked to kick his ass yourself.”

“It’s not too late for that.” Gabriel said as Cormac finally caught his breath and sat up, glaring at them.

“It’s like kicking a…” Jack tried to find a suitably pathetic metaphor and failed.

Gabriel scoffed. “Yeah. Mind getting Leo out of here? I need to have a talk with Cormac.”

Jack leaned over and pressed an affectionate kiss to his cheek. “Sure.”

He headed over to the crate, where the man had long since lowered his gun. He took a nervous step back as Jack approached.

“Get the fuck out of here.” He said.

The man bolted, edging nervously past Gabriel and Cormac as he went.

“Hey, Leo.”

Jack saw now that Leo had his arms bound in front of him, but was otherwise unharmed.

“I didn’t mean to!” He burst out immediately, guilt plain on his face. “They cornered me and stole my phone and threatened to go for _Cole_ next if I didn’t send Gabriel that stupid text. They’d have killed _all_ of Cole’s birds, and he’d be so--” 

Jack bit back a laugh. “It’s fine. I think Gabe had fun. Let’s get you out of here.” He said, thinking sadly about his knife at _Lita_ ’s as he undid the ropes by hand.

Once Leo was free, Jack took him back up the previous flight of stairs and gave him another once-over.

“You’re not hurt?”

“No.” Leo said. “But that guy hit _you!_ And it’s my fault!”

“Trust me, it’s not.” Jack said. “The only reason any of that happened is because we let it. If we had _really_ wanted to go in smart, we’d have taken them out first thing. Gabe just wanted to play around.”

Leo seemed a bit put-out. “Play around? My life was on the line!”

“He seemed pretty damn sure nobody was going to shoot you. To be honest, there’s no way they would have. This is a government museum.”

_Though with a sad lack of security. No cameras down there in the non-exhibit zone._

“But…” Leo trailed off.

“We’re professionals.” Jack said firmly. “They’re, well, not.”

“I guess. Still, you took Cormac down _fast_. It was kinda cool.”

Jack blinked. _It wasn’t even a challenge. He had no idea what he was doing. Felt like punching a little kid. Well. If the little kid had a gun._

“Well, I usually train with Gabe.” He said instead. “And Gabe is probably one of the best at hand-to-hand in the UN.”

“Seriously?” Leo said.

“I mean, yeah. There are some black-ops guys that are way better than even us in the S-squad, but Gabriel is good.”

Leo made a face. “Cormac is really kinda an idiot, isn’t he? You guys aren’t just foot soldiers.”

Jack laughed.

A moment later, Gabriel came upstairs. “You good?” He asked Leo.

Leo nodded, and then they made their way up to the front of the ship.

“See you tomorrow.” Gabriel said.

Leo frowned at that. “Wait, what? Where are you guys going?”

“We have like half of the museum left.” Gabriel said.

“But-- seriously?”

Jack shrugged, hopping in to agree. “Of course. We still haven’t checked out the old mounted guns yet.”

Leo watched them head back into the ship, aghast.

On the drive home, Jack mulled over something he’d been thinking about for a long time. Something that had been made even more apparent today.

“You look annoyed.” Gabriel said.

“Not annoyed.” He said.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

Jack raised his back. After a long moment, he relented with a sigh.

“People don’t take me seriously.”

“ _What_?”

Jack ignored Gabriel’s tone. “They don’t take me seriously. I’m a fucking solider too, just about as good as you. But you can scare people with a look. Me? Cormac didn’t even bother holding a gun to me, and don’t get me started about back in the ATU. The squad knew, sure. I’d proved myself to them a thousand times over. People out in the field? Whenever we teamed up with other squads, they _always_ underestimated me. Looked at me all shocked when I did my usual stuff. People we fought always looked to me last as a threat.”

“That’s not a--”

“That’s not a _bad_ thing, yeah Gabriel. I get it. It’s good when the enemy underestimates you. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting a little when they look at _you_ with fear. I’m so goddamn envious of your face. You have no idea.”

Gabriel stared at him as if he were insane. “You’re envious? Of _my_ face? Have you ever looked in a mirror, Jack?”

Jack gave a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, but I’m a soldier, Gabe. I’m not terrible looking sure, but I’m sick of not being taken seriously. You? You’re _so_ incredibly handsome, but in the soldier way. You can intimidate somebody with just a harsh look-- or your _normal_ look. Me? Well. Even you underestimated me until you saw me in action.”

Gabriel frowned at that, but didn’t argue.

Jack deflated. “Not to rant or anything. Minor annoyance. And I guess it’s better this way. Another reason we make such a good team, right? Opposites.” He turned to stare out the window, feeling silly for bringing it up.

“You really let things bottle up, don’t you?”

Jack stared out at the streets of LA, watching the ocean flash by in the distance. “Probably.”

Gabriel laughed, tugged Jack closer. “You’re just too damn nice, you know. Wipe that smile away and you’d be intimidating enough. You know you’re even grinning when you’re out shooting people, right?”

“I do not! Do I?”

“You do. And hey, it’s not like my face doesn’t come with its own detriments. It’s a pain to have to chase down enemies that run screaming from you.”

Jack snorted, sliding his fingers into Gabriel’s hair. “You wish.” He said, and then hesitated. “Sorry.”

“Cut the apologies, Morrison.”

Jack winked. “Sorry.” He said again, and then changed topics. “What did you _talk_ to Cormac about, anyways?”

Gabriel shrugged and refused to look at him, opting to instead rub at Jack’s palm with his thumb. “Just about how he’s an idiot for involving Leo. And… well. I didn’t like him touching you.”

Jack dropped the subject.

As they neared the house, Jack caught Gabriel throwing him the occasional side-glance.

“What is it?” He finally asked.

Gabriel jumped, as if caught doing something wrong. “What?”

“You keep looking at me weird.”

“I do not.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. It had worked on _him_.

Sure enough, Gabriel sighed. “I just, well, got you caught up in my old stuff.”

Is _that_ what the weird looks were for? Seriously?” Jack reached out and took Gabriel’s head in his hands, loving the feel of the stubble under his fingers. “I thought it was extremely entertaining, and you’re very endearing when you’re acting like a dork.”

“Endearing, sure. You still had a gun pressed to your head.”

“Isn’t the first or last time that’ll happen.”

He’d have said _so did you_ , but already knew how Gabriel would argue that point.

Gabriel scowled nevertheless. “Still. You’re way too okay with what just happened.”

_Ah. Still on the whole ‘you’re letting me hurt you’ thing, then._

“Gabe, _neither_ of us took it seriously enough. We’re both too used to danger like that-- far worse than that.”

Gabriel leaned into his touch, closed his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

“City life is wild.” Jack said.

“Well.” Gabriel finally smiled. “I wouldn’t call that normal city stuff. Just me getting into trouble.”

“We both have a knack for getting into trouble.” Jack said. “I won’t bitch when you get involved in mine, if you don’t bitch when I get involved in yours.”

“Deal.” Gabriel said immediately. “Your trouble is way more fucking common.”

“Hey!”

But one thing that stupid, laughable situation made Jack painfully aware of? They really were each other's greatest weakness. 

It scared him. 

That buffoon had figured it out pretty easily, though they hadn’t exactly hidden their relationship while in LA. How long would it take somebody intelligent to figure it out? Somebody dangerous? 

What would Jack do to keep Gabriel safe, and at what cost? What would Gabriel do to keep _him_ safe? They hadn’t had to answer those questions today, but Jack knew it was on both of their minds as they lay in bed that night, his head resting on Gabriel’s shoulder and an arm across his back.

_It’s a good thing we don’t have much to give. I’d have let those terrorists level Munich, if it were up to me and it meant Gabriel was safe. Hell, I’d have slapped the big red button myself._

He was once again grateful that Gabriel couldn’t read his thoughts-- and for the first time was grateful that he couldn’t read Gabriel’s; terrified he’d find him thinking the same thing.

They spent their last couple of days around the city, but they were more peaceful than anything else. They went to the beach a few more times, the bar with Gabriel's friends, and even _tried_ to help Leo find a date. It didn't work well.

And then, far too soon for Jack's liking, the day came for them to leave.

"It doesn't feel like it's been long enough." He complained, watching Gabriel finish packing his bag.

Gabriel seemed to agree with the statement– the look on his face somber.

"Yeah. It'll probably be a while until we're back, too."

_Until we're back._ The thought warmed his heart. _He wants me back here again someday._

"Probably. Who knows what's going to happen at this program."

"We'll kick its ass, that's what." Gabriel said, and then swallowed. "I just hope she stays alive long enough for me to see her again."

Jack winced. _Lita_ was old, and she wasn't getting any younger. Still…

"She's pretty damn spry for her age, Gabe. I'm sure she'll be fine."

"...Yeah." Gabriel said, reaching up to tug Jack into his arms. "Consider SEP conquered and us back for a visit already."

Jack wrapped his own arms around Gabriel’s shoulders, nuzzling into the stubble. “It just sucks. We always had to hide it back with the ATU, and now we’re going to have to go back to _really_ hiding it again. Us. After these last few weeks, I’m just so used to…” He trailed off, unable to vocalize it.

“I understand.” Gabriel said.

Jack dropped his head into the crook of Gabriel’s neck, sighing as he felt those heavy arms wrap around him. It was just so _nice_ to be able to do this whenever he wanted; rest his face in-between that old black hoodie and familiar skin and breathe in Gabriel’s scent.

During the last few weeks, a single day had held nearly _months_ of the skin-to-skin contact they’d managed to scrounge up during the ATU; the little hints of time they’d managed to snatch alone in a place with no cameras. Neither of them had realized how touch-starved they’d been until they’d gotten on the train to Indiana, and even then, it had taken a long while before they’d realized nothing was stopping them from making full use of their time.

And now? They were heading back to the military. Back to brushing their hands together a couple times a day if they were lucky, or practicing hand-to-hand while trying not to seem too enthusiastic about it.

He pressed a kiss to Gabriel’s neck, savoring the arms tightening around him. They didn’t have much longer, but at least he could always look back on this.

Jack went out to the living room, where _Lita_ sat with an unusually subdued expression. She was working on a new scrapbook– this one with pictures of Jack and Gabriel on their trip. Including… some of the ones Jack had taken on his phone of them in Indiana.

_How the hell?_

"Nice pictures." He tried, pointing to one of he and Gabriel with Annabelle in the field.

She dutifully rose to the bait.

"Gabi got them for me after a little convincing. You two are so perfect for each other." She sighed. "I just hope I'm alive to attend your wedding."

_Again with the wedding._

The thought made him uncomfortable; not because he didn't want to spend the rest of his life with Gabriel, but… well. He didn't know why. Maybe paperwork scared him. Maybe because he'd never allowed himself to imagine it before, and the concept was now alien. They'd had to hide it for so long, and now they were about to have to hide it again. Their situation being possibly known to the UN was…

"And I hope he's alive to take part in it." _Lita_ said more quietly, her withered hand squeezing hard on a tube of glitter.

Jack bit the inside of his cheek. _Gabriel…_

"Don't worry." He said. "As long as I'm still around, he's going to make it out."

On a whim, he reached out and took her hand.

"I'll protect him. I promise.”

It was strange. As they took a cab to the train station, he realized he was going to miss the city-- and for the first time, the people.

Because even after only ten or eleven days of being there, he felt a lot more comfortable than he _ever_ had in Indiana. He felt safe, and-- well. Loved. Something he’d never really gotten at the farmhouse. _Lita_ truly had treated him like a son; the kind of unconditional parental love he’d never known he wanted. Hell, even Gabriel’s _friends_ treated him more warmly than his own friend group back home, barring the one exception.

And of course, there was what mattered the most. Gabriel himself.

For the first time in his life, Jack really felt like he had a home.

Two hours later, they boarded a train to the military base in Chicago– And from Chicago, blindfolded to SEP. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm considering writing little 'extra' chapters to tack on to the end of this in the upcoming months, like "what-ifs" that relate to it. Not 'canon' in this little timeline thing I'm developing here, but just for kicks. Like an alternate-alternate timeline where Ethan comes back as a villain, or Cormac is actually competent, or maybe something actually 'canon' to this story. Like the details of how Jack and Gabriel tried to get Leo a date. IDK. I've already started on my next project; a collection of shorts about their time in the ATU set before this. This pair is incredibly inspiring tbh, and I have years of headcanons to finally put to text.  
> Anyways. Thank you all!


End file.
